Greek artist’s exhibition to feature popular shadow puppet

Exhibit8 gallery will host the solo painting exhibition of renowned Greek artist Marina Petri this month. The exhibition Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism opens this Friday at the Limassol gallery which features the popular Greek shadow theatre character.

“In the artworks of Marina Petri,” say organisers, “folk tradition conversates with major creators of Western art, such as Caravaggio, Balthus and Gauguin. The traditional figure of shadow theatre, known as Karagiozis, penetrates with audacity in their works and becomes part of them. Karagiozis transforms continuously, changing parts and reminding the viewer of his theatrical roots. He adapts to heterogeneous environments, he is meddling with the main characters of the works, he is getting lost in the inhabited places of the Renaissance artists, the fauvists, the nabis, the cubist or the expressionists and invites us to discover him.

The specific body of work is part of a broader series titled Karagiozis the Modern Greek that was presented for the first time in 2009, at the House of Cyprus in Athens, while some of the artworks have been presented in London and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Through the folk figure of Karagiozis, Petri puts forth the personality of the modern Greek with humour yet with a critical view. She is transformed into a diligent shadow theatre player (karagiozopaihtis) herself and she pulls the strings of the art play. Petri creates images through an assemblage of different materials as she enriches the traditional repertoire of Karagiozis with unexpected actions and modernises the narrative potential of his persona.

The artist’s colourful artwork will remain at the gallery until the exhibition ends on November 25.

Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism

Solo exhibition of Greek artist Marina Petri. November 10-25. Exhibit8 gallery, Limassol. Opening night 7.30pm. Tuesday – Saturday: 10am-11pm. Tel: 25-212171