Badly Scripted: a first solo exhibition

Gallery K will host the first solo exhibition of young artist Kyprianos Dimosthenous to launch its autumn season of events. From Wednesday to October 28, the artist’s works will remain displayed in the gallery.

The show brings together a compelling collection of over 60 paintings curated around themed categories by Lefteris Ioannides. “Kyprianos moves freely from the grotesque to the fascinating, deftly combining elements from cinematic culture, mythology, surrealism and the evils of war to offer a richly explored view of the human condition,” says Ioannides. “The challenge, however, always lies in encouraging the viewer to give an interpretation to the artistic narrative that is entirely their own”.

Whatever the interpretation or the theme, the artist anchors his passion in the human figure, which he renders in a diversity of roles and identities across the canvasses making up the show, each with its own universe of forced transformations, obscure landscapes, electric colour, cloud patterns and improbable images. Titled Badly Scripted, the exhibition also touches upon the subject of the duality of human nature.

The paintings graft together aspects of European surrealism, Greek mythology, comic book illustrations, and references to expressionism and realism, while also displaying influence from Kyprianos’ avid pursuit of stage drama. The show, in fact, takes its name from one of the surrealist paintings.

“Badly Scripted is an irregular tapestry of ruptured metamorphoses and surreal propositions; a game, in which a female figure can be realised by a hat and a pair of legs with bright red high heels adorning her feet. It is an improbable image; and yet, it is inexplicably rational in its exuberant vibrancy, which is captured by the artist just before becoming languid after an exhausting dance to the tunes of a vintage-looking Gramophone extending a hand to play the piano on a strolling, snake-like avenue of piano keys extending to infinity. Bobbing around them is a large open eye,” says art editor Marina Stefanides.

The showcase at the Nicosia gallery is the first solo show of the London-based Kyprianos, who was born in Nicosia in 1996. A fine arts graduate with studies in theatre and cinematography, he comments: “I explore many dark themes about human nature and its dichotomies, and I identify closely with the surrealists. At the same time, I explore my own fears and I cannot exclude the possibility that I project my own anxieties into my work regarding the cruelty of war, seen and felt on many of these canvasses.”

Badly Scripted

Solo exhibition by artist Kyprianos Dimosthenous. September 28-October 28. Gallery K, Nicosia. Opening night: 7.30pm. Tuesday, Thursdat and Friday: 9 am – 2 pm and 4 pm – 7 pm. Wednesday and Saturday: 9 am – 5 pm. Tel: 22-341122