Cupid Shoots To Kill: exhibition looks at finding love in today’s world

Is dating in this day and age getting you down? A new Paphos exhibition sheds light on the struggles of finding love in today’s world. Cupid Shoots to Kill is a solo exhibition by artist Lex Pan that will open at Psifida Art Gallery on Friday and for one month it will present the emotions that come with dating through the artist’s human-like characters who are trying to survive the beautiful and hard reality of loving.

Lex Pan, the artistic name of Alexandra Panagiotidou a Greek-Australian artist, creates work that primarily depicts human-like creatures struggling to come to terms with their own emotions. Her work involves powerful illustrations that captivate the troubling anxieties people deal with in today’s age. She approaches these emotions with a humoristic tone, a lot of colours and a bit of sarcasm. After years in London, Pan has moved back to her home town, Thessaloniki, and is ready to present her next solo show taking place outside of Greece, in Paphos.

“Lex uses vivid colours to capture the exciting aspects of love and rough, sketch-like brushstrokes to capture the anxieties and difficulties people face when forming new attachments,” say exhibition organisers. “The loneliness, the excitement, the patience, the tears and the disappointment of it all. In a post-pandemic reality, the rules of dating have changed, our time is becoming even more limited, and people are viewed more as commodities rather than individuals, getting to know someone becomes time-consuming, and time is precious, how do we choose who to invest in? The important thing to remember is ‘the less you give, the less you have to lose’.

“This show,” they add, “explores all feelings that come with love with a humoristic approach; and the substances we turn to when love does not work out for us, we are all looking to attach ourselves to something to cure us from our loneliness, but sometimes we cling onto the wrong things or the wrong people.”

Cupid Shoots to Kill

Solo exhibition by artist Lex Pan. Curated by Chryso Psajii. May 5-June 6. Psifida Art Gallery, Paphos. Opening night: 7pm. Tuesday-Friday: 11am-1.30pm. Saturday: 12pm-4pm. Sunday: 2.30pm-6.30pm. Tel: 26-442111. www.psifida.com.cy