A new exhibition opens soon at Nicosia’s Marginalia Gallery presenting the works of Anna Achilleos-Staeubli. Blue hues will take over the gallery walls from June 7 to 29 as the Mesogeios exhibition presents the sea as a bodily substance.

Anna is an artist active in Paphos, Bern and Athens since 2000 working on paintings using the encaustic technique, an ancient technique that blends beeswax, pigments, acrylics and oil. For her Mesogeios exhibition, she has produced 40 paintings, made specifically for the recreation area of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, paying homage to the sea – a distinctive feature of both Greece and Cyprus.

The artworks take viewers on a journey across the Mediterranean of the entire Greek civilization, from the Ionian and the Aegean, the Propontis and the Black Sea, to the Myrtle and the Libyan Sea. Countless shades of blue paint images of shells and their symbolisms, the vast ocean, creatures and myths.

“Driven by her imperative need to render the majesty of colours,” says curator Iris Kritikou, “the rhythm of shape, the desire of touch, the ecstatic moisture, the permanence, the inexhaustible depth and breadth and the primordial secret undulation, Anna Achilleos-Staeubli has devoted herself for decades to both inherent difficulties of the technique and the exciting possibilities of encaustic art.” Following several solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Anna’s works reach the capital city of Cyprus this June.

Mesogeios

Solo exhibition by Anna Achilleos-Staeubli. June 7-29. Marginalia Gallery, Nicosia. Opening night: 7.30pm. Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 1pm and 5.30pm – 8pm. Saturday: 10.30am – 1pm. Tel: 99-657080