New art, new artists and new galleries. An upcoming art exhibition brings with it a lot of fresh elements. A fairly young artist, a recently opened gallery and artwork presented for the first time. Vasileia Anaxagorou opened her solo exhibition titled The Carnivalesque as a Social Commentary: 2021 at the O Gallery in Larnaca on Monday and it will remain open until May 28.

Vibrant colours and various thick shapes compose Vasileia’s pieces. Her work is interdisciplinary, overlapping in places with moving-image, performance, socially-engaged artworks, photography, painting, drawing and text-based narratives. Through her work, she continuously addresses themes from feminist and queer theory and uses her voice through art-making and research questioning gender representation in societal norms.

Her current doctoral research at the University of Cyprus looks at this theme in more depth as it focuses on the sexual politics of the migrant, and more precisely, the asylum seeker. Perhaps it was Vasileia’s extensive art education that led her to this, having completed studies in the UK and at the School of Visual Arts in New York from where she graduated top of her department. From there she continued her MFA at the University of Oxford before returning to Cyprus.

This month, she will share her work with this independent commercial art gallery in Larnaca which aims to be more than just an art space but an art destination.

The Carnivalesque as a Social Commentary:2021

Solo exhibition by Vasileia Anaxagorou. May 10-28. O Gallery, Larnaca. Monday: 5pm-8pm. Tuesday-Saturda: 10am-1pm and 4pm-7pm. Sunday: 3pm-7pm and by appointment. Tel: 99-659202