Vartan Tashdjian - Island of Saints, Artist of Light

KPMG proudly announced today an exhibition of 32 new paintings by Vartan Tashdjian, one of the most important contemporary Cypriot artists. The exhibition, to celebrate the painter’s 40-year career, will be open to the public from the 13th of November through the 24th at the Cyprus Theatre Organization (THOC) in Nicosia. A documentary of Vartan’s life and work, Shades of Tranquility, will premiere on the opening night of the exhibition.

Of Armenian origin, Vartan was raised in Cyprus, and his paintings are a celebration of the island’s natural beauty. Vartan has dedicated his life and his work to Cyprus, his adopted home, and its diverse land and seascapes are his greatest inspirations, particularly the island’s mountain ranges and golden fields, its unrivalled light and impossibly rich colours. Vartan’s experience of the island, as rendered in his paintings, is as visceral for him as his own heartbeat.

As a young man, Vartan studied painting, literature, music and theatre at the Melkonian Educational Institute in Nicosia. He then travelled to Lebanon to study mathematics at the American University in Beirut. He returned to Cyprus in 1966 and has lived in Nicosia ever since. Vartan has been an art teacher, a singer, a writer, an actor and a school director. His first love, however, is painting.

Vartan is a highly accomplished and critically acclaimed artist. He has exhibited widely in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, The Middle and Far East, taking him to cities like Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, London, Athens, Sydney, Bangkok, Dubai, Beirut to name a few. Just recently he presented his latest work, on the 23rd of October in Los Angeles, in a very successful exhibition that explored sailing and village scenes, a little nostalgia with Melkonian and some showcases of Vartan’s finest watercolour and oil paintings. His works can be found in Art Museums, Galleries and private collections all over the world. No other Cypriot painter has exhibited work in so many international venues. He is recipient of numerous awards and his exhibition in Cyprus promises to mesmerise all art lovers.

The exhibition opens on Tuesday, 12th of November at 19:30