Xenia Panteli
She was born in Nicosia in November 1950. She grew up in Karavas, province of Kyrenia, until the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. She studied at the School of Fine Arts in Aix-en-Provence in France (1969 – 1973). She now lives and works as an art teacher in Secondary Education – Public Sector in Cyprus.
In her tetraptych Untitled, Xenia Panteli presents a group of people, without defining their particular characteristics – only the face of a woman is distinguishable – or their posture. This is due to the unusual angle from which the artist is looking at the scene and it is this angle she chooses to present to the viewers. She portrays the people as if one sees them from above, suspended over the water surface, but at the same time as if one sees them from below. She confines them, however, on the top of the painting allowing the blue colour to dominate the rest of the canvas’s surface, and, as there are no details to define a specific space, the whole scene acquires an enigmatic dimension. This is a group of people sitting and daydreaming in a sensual relationship with water. Is it a lake, a river, a sea? Nonetheless, it does not matter as, for Xenia Panteli, the important thing is the depiction of a specific intense experience, of the contact with water, which is exploited as a symbol for whatever deep and penetrating can characterise man’s psychology.
The man and the woman also function metaphorically: the male element as an expression of intelligence and the female element representing sentiments, creativity and life itself. Their harmonious co-existence is necessary for man’s equanimity and a vital presupposition for creation. The small fish in the water also functions symbolically both as man’s longing for life and as his urge to satisfy hid desires. Xenia Panteli gives the water, a source of life and a metaphor of “perpetual motion”, a quasi-metaphysical dimension, linking it to the concepts of birth and rebirth. The water surface also gives the impression of a blue veil, which the people are trying to grab and lift in order to see the mystery on the other side. The work, a metaphor of the vital strength and the never-ending birth and rebirth of man in the course of his life, becomes a symbol of the artistic creation itself.
Solo Exhibitions:
1981: “Themelio” Gallery, Limassol
1984: “Themelio” Gallery, Limassol
1985: “Gloria” Gallery, Nicosia
1994: “Opus II” Gallery, Nicosia
1995: “Ekfrasi” Gallery, Larnaca
1997: International Fair, 1st Festival of Visual Arts Cyprus, Nicosia
Group Exhibitions:
1973: Foyer Cultural, Aix-en-Provence, France
1982: “Kyklos” Gallery, Paphos | “Nilios” Gallery, Limassol
1983: “Exposition de peinure Chypriote Contemporaire”, Paris, France
1985: “Jeune Greaters en Mediteranee”, Marseilles, France
1989: “Painting Exhibition of Cypriot art Teachers”, House of Cyprus, Athens, Greece
1990: Moscow, Russia | Beijing, China | “Chypre 9000 ans de civilisation”, Chateau de Tours, France | “Limassol Artists”, Municipal Art Gallery, Limassol
1992: “Modern Cypriot Art 1900 – 1988”, Brussels, Belgium
1993: University of Cyprus, Nicosia | “30th Anniversary of Franco-German Friendship”, Nicosia | “Artists who passed through France”, Rogmi Gallery, Limassol
1994: “Gaia – Aphrodite Symposium”, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia | “From Curium to Kiti”, Ekfrasis Gallery, Larnaca | “August Moons”, Odos Athinon Gallery, Limassol
1995: “Pictorial Path”, Nicosia | El Mediterraneo lycar de Inercambio de Cultures, Malaga, Spain
1996: “Mediterranean 1996”, Limassol Municipal Art Gallery, Limassol | Municipal Art Centre, Nicosia
1997: “Modern Goddess”, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia | “Women Creators of the two Seas”, Thessaloniki, Greece
1999: “Painting Greece” Symposium, Lipsi-Dodecanese, Greece | Symposium “Art Colony”, Galichnik, Fyrom | “G” Gallery, Limassol | “Royan” Gallery, Limassol
2000: “Symposium Greek Artists”, Samothraki, Greece
2003: “Intercontinental Meeting”, Larissa, Greece
1982 – 2010: Participation in E.KA.TE Exhibitions