Honouring the contribution of Andreas Karayan to the Arts and Literature of the Republic of Cyprus which the artist has deservedly represented internationally and on the occasion of 80 years and 50 years of his creation, the Municipality of Limassol is organising a retrospective exhibition of his paintings celebrating its opening at the International Day of Consciousness of the UN General Assembly on Friday, April 5, 2024, at 18:00 at the Limassol Municipal Arts Center – Apothikes Papadaki entitled “Karayan: The Golden Eras”.
The exhibition will be inaugurated by Ms Annita Demetriou, President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus. Dr Vasiliki Kassianidou, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus and Mr Nicos Nicolaidis, Mayor of Limassol will address the exhibition.
The introduction to the exhibition will be held by: Dr Nadia Anaxagorou, Director of Cultural Services of the Municipality of Limassol and Mr George Taxiarchopoulos, Director of the Municipal Arts Center of Limassol – Apothikes Papadaki.
Acclaimed art historians, art critics and journalists from Greece, Cyprus and abroad have written about the paintings of Andreas Karayan, such as Dr Andri Michael, Chrysanthos Christou, Nikos Xydakis, Kiro di Nardo, Vitaliano Corbi, Davide Gallo, Dr Fredrich Rothe, Andreas Meydorn, Manfred Panforder, among others.
“The artist and writer Andreas Karayan, has conquered in our consciousness his place in the history of Contemporary Cypriot Art with the imposing presence of his works in the artistic and cultural events of the Republic of Cyprus and internationally. Both his painting and himself are in an open dialogue, sometimes indirectly and often directly, with the great masters from Greece and the contemporary international artistic scene. Karayan has exhibited alongside big names in the History of Contemporary Art such as Anselm Kiefer, Vanessa Beecroft, etc. While in their meeting with Yannis Tsarouchis during his first solo exhibition at the historical gallery “Hora” (Athens 1978) as it has been recorded, he introduced the male nude in Cypriot painting and received the recognition and credit of the great Greek painter. In his current retrospective exhibition, selected works from the 8 sections of the artist’s life and art journey are presented”, says Mr George Taxiarchopoulos who collaborated during the implementation of the exhibition set up with the artistic coordinator of Andreas Karayan’s artworks, Mr Mohamed El Saadani.
“The creators and all of us as citizens coexist in these Landscapes and Bodies that I paint as geography, but we are also reflected as consciousnesses ontologically into their Images. Without matter, our Soul cannot find the incentive and express itself freely. It is not healthy to abandon what our senses dictate in our spirit”, says the artist himself about his aim in painting.
“Andreas Karayan’s paintings that we present at the Limassol Municipal Arts Center – Apothikes Papadaki, as well as his literary works, are a fair and integral part and legacy in the consciousness of Cypriot Contemporary Art and our Cultural Heritage. That is why we have chosen this particular international celebration day about Consciousness for its inauguration. While they are simultaneously coloured by the experiences and soul of the artist in space and during the time, one may identify also in his thematic abstract evidence in their ambience by historical events and incidents that the painter experiences in his own special way in Greece, Cyprus and abroad during the course of his life”, says Mr Nicos Nicolaidis, Mayor of Limassol about the artist and the exhibition.
It is known that Andreas Karayan successfully represented the Republic of Cyprus at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and the Cairo Biennale in 2007. Also, that was the case in other important international exhibitions abroad during his long artistic career in which he had been distinguished several times.
While as a writer, he has also been recognized and awarded in 2011 and 2014 with the Republic of Cyprus State Fiction Prize for his books “Immoral Stories, London – Alexandria” published by Gavrielides, Athens 2011 and “Dark Stories” by ESTIA publications, Athens 2013 In January 2023, he completed his autobiographical and novel pentalogy, which he had been writing since 2004 as his legacy to the new generation and chronicles the search for the narrator’s artistic identity in a changing world from the second half of the 20th century until today.
“The critical look of the spiritual man and the analytical observation of the painter-medical doctor are reflected in Karayan’s realistic detailed drawing. The reversals he chooses to make in the facts of his life, his point of view and statements on the freedom of the individual, his humour, form another “Landscape” character of the artist from the realistic one which seems to work for him creatively and plastically but also helps him to transmit us as a society his life example through his Art whose iconography is subversive for his time. The painter Karayan is the positive paradigm of a conscious personality, whose effort is ardently and passionately focused on the transformation of the personal into collective for the purpose of freedom. Through his paintings, his revolutionary attitude to life and his philosophy as creator, he managed to reduce himself alongside the historical events of his time in order to become an undeniably important and pioneer artist for Cypriot and new Greek painting. “Life is the Art” for Andreas Karayan and not the other way around. Life and work are a Landscape-Body, which he paints by infusing his Soul with contemplation in order to preserve in his memory and consciously in our memory, the “Soul of Moments” that penetrate us as ephemeral ontologies and we all wish we could turn them into eternal ones in perpetuity when we wake up for a while and feel their significance” notes Mr George Taxiarchopoulos in the catalogue of the exhibition.
The painting example of Andreas Karajan can be recognised and experienced by anyone in the selected artworks of the painter in the exhibition, as well as can be witnessed in those paintings of his that are included in important State Galleries collections and well-known art collections in Cyprus and around the world, in Germany, Italy, Britain, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, as well as in the official historical auctions of Bonham’s auction house in London about the Modern Greek Painting.
The exhibition duration is from 05/04 to 11/05/2024.
Entrance is free.
Scheduled guided tours free of charge for the public will be held by the Curator in the presence of the artist in the exhibition venue, on Tuesdays 9-16-23 & 30/4/2024 from 14:30- 15:30.
Exhibition hours: Tuesday – Friday, 10:00 – 18:00 and Saturday, 10:00 – 14:00