Visitors challenged to become the artists

On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the AG Leventis Gallery invites the public to an alternative exhibition and challenges viewers to reconsider what they think they know about art, the creative process and the relationship between the creator and the viewer. In 1, 2, 3…Paint!, visitors switch places with artists to immerse themselves deeper into the craft. The opening event on April 5 will be inaugurated by the First Lady at 6pm.

Starting with the idea of ‘paint by numbers’ – a hugely popular hobby born in the post-war prosperity of the 1950s America, forever associated with the somewhat ‘easy’ reproduction of often famous works of art that allowed anyone to become an artist – the AG Leventis Gallery requests that its visitors switch places with artists from the distant and more recent past and interpret in their own way paintings that they have come to know and love from the gallery’s permanent collections, as well as ten years of temporary exhibitions, educational programmes and fruitful exchanges of ideas in the spaces of the gallery.

The objective is to revisit the Gallery’s Collections with new eyes and, for the more daring, to address meaningful questions that seek the essence contained in artistic creation. Thus, this participatory exhibition deals with the legacy of modernism that was inextricably linked to the questioning of the role of the artist as ‘creator’.

At the same time, it experiments with the myth of artistic genius, collaborative culture and the mechanical art that gave birth to Pop Art, an era brought back to life through paint-by-number boxes (and the bold proposition Paint it Yourself!) that subversive artists from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst and beyond have been dealing with for years.

The exhibition introduces in a tangible way a more democratic approach to art while focussing on extroversion and inclusion. It offers everyone the opportunity to reflect and to engage intellectually with a series of questions, to interpret actively, to confront perceptions and ideas and to consider their own role as transmitter/receiver in a visual game.

For the duration of the exhibition a number of musical events will also take place so visitors can paint while listening to music. The first event on April 11, from 7pm to 10pm, has Misharoz Jazz Band performing a selection of traditional early jazz and blues songs, as well as original compositions. Think original New Orleans rags, the glorious melancholy swing of Billie Holiday, the hot intensity of Caribbean Beguines and the folkloric music of Cyprus and England. All while witnessing the Gallery in new light and becoming an artist for the night.

1, 2, 3…Paint!

Participatory exhibition where visitors become the artists. April 6-June 9. A.G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia. Opening night: 6pm. Wednesday: 10am-8pm. Thursday-Sunday: 10am-5pm. Tel: 22-668838