Greek artist Dimitris Talaganis will return to our island after a 40-year absence to bring us a collection of his work at Gallery Gloria in Nicosia as of Friday.
The exhibition will be displayed as part of an international artistic tour with works that reflect the artist’s creative thinking, his philosophy about life, and his historical reflections. It will include a tribute to Georgos Fragkoudis, founder of the Panteion University.
Talaganis was born in Arcadia, spent his childhood in Tripoli and then moved to Athens, where he stayed until 1964. He then spent 10 years away from Greece, with his first stop being the Soviet Union. He studied architecture at the Architectural Institute of Moscow, on a scholarship, from 1964 to 1971. During his studies he learned from the likes of Tourgeniev, Krinski, Barchin and Milinikof. During his last year of studies, he won first prize in a competition to design the new Lenin Museum. This study was presented over a one-year period at an exhibition having to do with Soviet achievements in the fields of technology and science. After Talaganis received a medal for his contribution, his work became a permanent exhibit.
He began painting in 1971 in Italy, where he researched the architecture and art of the Renaissance. He then went to Paris, where he worked as an architect, and returned to Greece in 1974, where he continues to live and work. He had his first solo exhibition in Paris in 1974 and has participated in a number of group exhibitions since 1973. He was also, rather surprisingly, the deputy mayor of Tripoli from 1998 to 2002.
His painting is charcterised by a lyrical realism with references to Greek vase painting. He has also engaged with photography, on which he has applied paint. He has been commissioned to design posters, stage sets, costumes and medallions, for many of which he has received awards.
The exhibition will be inaugurated on Friday at 7.30pm by Professor Constantinos Gouliamos, rector of the European University, and it will be presented by Ambassador Nikolas Garillis, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece in Turkey.
Solo Painting Exhibition
Solo exhibition by Dimitris Talaganis. Opens March 16 at 7.30pm until March 27. Gallery Gloria, 3 Zinonos Sozou Street, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10.30pm-12.45pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10.30pm-12.45pm. Tel: 22-762605
