Andreas Efstathiou

As from 10 December, Gallery Morfi in Limassol presents the latest work of Andreas Efstathiou. The exhibition shall remain open until 10 January 2014.

Dr Michael Paraskos writes about the work of Andreas Efstathiou:
“There is a curious phenomenon that we can see in the art of Andreas Efstathiou. I don’t know whether Efstathiou indents to become a painter of abstract images, but abstract values are at the heart of his art. One of the first things one notices about his paintings is the colour. In fact there is a love the way he uses his colour, for an artist particular painter, is one of the most important starting points for making art because art is a sensual activity involving the eyes, the sense of touch, the sense of movement. And even the sense of smell, taste and hearing.

Efstathiou is aware of the sensual environment in which he works, and in his own studio there is a rich environment that shows a love for the materials he uses, even in his teaching at the Cyprus College Of Art, Efstathiou will encourage the students to make their studio spaces rich sensual environment in which they will want to work, and he claims to know which students will do well in their studies just by looking at their studio spaces

Looking at his work there is a true language of art ,which is not illustrate ideas, bud to explore the sensual relationship between sight, space, texture, colour and the other physical sensations of the body. Art is a haptic form of communication, not a type of journalism
There is a motivating force that led to his subjects and they might have been the reason why he painted them in the first place, bud to become something we call art, the art work has to move away from the original motivating force, a process known as aesthetic distance. Art is not the immediate expression of emotion it is (as the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridche said) the contemplation of emotion. To become art has to be removed from the immediate experience which means it has to be distance from it, Efstathiou is well aware of this function of art and in his latest paintings there is less emphasis on subject matter and more on the fundamental aesthetic issues of colour texture , expression, line and the illusion of space. This shows Efstathiou is an artist who is maturing not only in his technical ability but in his intellectual understanding of art. Away from juvenile belief ( that we all start off with) that art is about illustrating clever ideas, towards a recognition that art is about transforming the fleeting experience of the world in to a permanent physical form. In doing so, the painting becomes a window on a new reality and not a mirror reflecting our reality, it no longer reflects an emotion event or point of view in our world, instead it is transformed into a vision of an alternative reality that we can look at, and imagine ourselves into.”

Opening on December 10 at 19:30.

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Friday 10:00-13:00 & 16:00-19:00
Monday and Saturday 10:00-13:00