Artists return to Lempa

Five artists will come together to display their work at the Cyprus College of Art in Lempa on Wednesday under the name Nostos.

Nostos – which is a theme used in Homer’s The Odyssey – means that trials and temptations are overcome to return home while retaining individual identity.

These five artists – Margaret Paraskos, Cheryl Newman, Athina Antoniadou, Jennifer Harding and Emilio Koutsoftides – have been returning to the Cyprus College of Art since the 1980s and now they are joining forces to bring their diverse pieces of artwork under one roof.

The roof that they will meet under has a special meaning to all five of the artists. It is a kind of spiritual homeland where art has real meaning and the means are provided to be able to experience the freedom to explore, create and experiment with your own work.

Paraskos, who is the director of the Cyprus College of Art, explains that “chaotic and fragmentary items related to mythology and folklore in Cyprus and other cultures in this part of the world together with the sculpture wall of Lempa are gathered together and rendered in a unifying space in my paintings.”

Photographer and curator Newman’s photographs included in this exhibition investigate the mythology of the island. Her photographs look at the myth of Aphrodite through a contemporary approach, while exploring still life, portrait and landscape images of archaeological sites.

Antoniadou’s work is mostly autobiographical as she documents her encounters while travelling around the world in her art. The encounters ask the big questions in life, like who we are, where we came from and what is death?

Harding, from London, often returns to Lempa where she is influenced by the island’s architecture, icons, music and other local traditions which become part of the images she produces.

Architect and artist Koutsoftides recently won a prize for Second Nature competition Pafos2017 City of Culture with Gabor Stark for architects with artists with their installation entitled PolyCatOikia or Cat Hotel.

Nostos
Group exhibition. Opens August 2 at 7.30pm until August 14. The Old Powerhouse, Pali Ilektriki, 8 Vladimerou Herakleous, Paphos. 11am-1pm and 4pm-7pm. Tel: 99-225331

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