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From: Ned Thisom Category: Exhibitions Date: 19 May 2007 Time: 08:14 AM Review: Two days ago I had the pleasure of attending the Graduation show of the post graduate students from the Cyprus College of Art. The show is being held in an exquisite old Turkish building in the Turkish Quarter of the town of Limassol, in Cyprus. This is the sort of place that makes you feel positive the moment you step up the steps and through the front door, add to that the Hennessy drinks sponsorship and the beautiful enclosed back yard and things are looking good. In Cyprus art openings are much more of an occasion than they are in Britain, maybe because there are less of them. This one was opened by the Mayor of Limassol and the principal and founder of the school Stass Paraskos. Stass is one of Cyprus' most well known artists, his is a kind of folk art, rumour has it that the Tate have just bought some of his pictures. Stass' speech at the opening was endearing, he talked about how proud he was of the students and of the excellent quality of work on show. He also spoke about the personal qualities of the art, how he feels that skill or technique are more important than ideas or concepts or fashion, how these students were honest within their work and how important it is to not try to be too clever when making work. He ended the speech by saying that any art school in London would be proud to have students of this standard. I like Stass and I agree with some of what he says. And it's true, some of the work in this show is excellent, some complex layered etchings kept me transfixed for a while, I also liked the large Basquiat style (but a with a folk art twist) paintings. In a room on it's own was a sculpture made of paper of a tree, from floor to ceiling it looked as though it was growing through the building. Some others things were good too, others not so, as is always the case at degree shows I think, although a lot of this stuff seems to have an outsider quality, currently fashionable in London I think. One thing that Stass had said bothered me, and I'm not sure why he mentioned it, about London art schools being proud to have these students. Going on my own experience of London art schools I would disagree that these are the kind of artists they want. I maybe wrong, it may just be that these kinds of artist don't want the competitive drowning of London, and I expect that London is missing out because of it. London art schools and these artists seem at most part to be at either ends of the spectrum to me. Later on in the evening whilst still at the show, (the cognac lasted until it was time to leave) a friend quoted Duchamp to me, and I paraphrase, 'the artist who merely paints what he sees is stupid'. I don't imagine that Stass is a big fan of Duchamp. Although I don't imagine Duchamp would be a big fan Of Stass' either.