Exhibit8 gallery in Limassol hosts the solo painting exhibition of Marina Petri, “Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism”. Marina Petri is a renowned Greek painter coming from the island of Mykonos. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and then, under state scholarship, she completed her master’s studies at the Royal College of Art in London. From 1990 till today she lives between Peiraeus, Mykonos and Berlin. Her artworks can be found in important Greek and international art collections and have been presented in solo and group exhibitions in several countries such as the UK, Germany, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Syria and Japan.
“Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism” features paintings where the traditional shadow theatre figure of Karagiozis is mixed and creates a conversation with emblematic paintings of modern and renaissance art. Karagiozis is a shadow puppet and fictional character of Greek folklore with oriental origins. His name is borrowed from Turkish Karagöz meaning “dark-eyed”. The specific body of work is part of a broader series titled “Karagiozis the Modern Greek” that was presented for the first time in 2009, at the House of Cyprus in Athens, while some of the artworks have been presented in London and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Through the folk figure of Karagiozis, Marina Petri puts forth the personality of the modern Greek with humour yet with a critical view. She is transformed into a diligent shadow theatre player (karagiozopaihtis) herself and she pulls the strings of the art play. Petri creates images through an assemblage of different materials as she enriches the traditional repertoire of Karagiozis with unexpected actions and modernizes the narrative potential of his persona.
In “Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism” exhibition, folk tradition conversates with major creators of Western art, such as Caravaggio, Balthus and Gauguin. The traditional figure of shadow theatre penetrates with audacity in their works and becomes part of them. Karagiozis transforms continuously, changing parts and reminding the viewer of his theatrical roots. He adapts to heterogeneous environments, he is meddling with the main characters of the works, he is getting lost in the inhabited places of the Renaissance artists, the fauvists, the nabis, the cubist or the expressionists and invites us to discover him.
At the same time, Greek folk tradition is present. Marina Petri paints on metal trays, and on wooden triptychs of religious icons or stools, transfiguring functional objects into art pieces and thus obscuring the boundaries between lived experience and aestheticized representation. Shape and meaning are interconnected. The prevalent visual delirium reflects the raving temperament and life of Karagiozis. The grotesque aesthetics of extravagance refer to the shadow theatre scene (berdés).
Marina Petri purposefully reproduces different styles and turns to the past to comment on the present, staging a dialogue between the local and the universal and entangling delightfully different realities, free from the veneer of solemnity.
The opening event of “Karagiozis: Tradition & Modernism” will be held on the 10th of November, at 19.30, in the presence of the artist, and the exhibition will last till the 25th of November.
Duration: 10- 25 November 2023
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10:00 – 23:00/ Saturday: 12.00 – 23:00
Private viewings are available upon request
Exhibit8 Gallery: Hatziloizi Mihailidi 21, Katholiki, 3041, Limassol, Cyprus
Information: www.exhibit8.com.cy, Instagram: exhibit8gallery, facebook: @exhibit8art, tel: +357 25 21 21 71
