Narrative Exhibition
'Reading Waters'

A narrative exhibition with artworks related to water from the Cyprus Collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery and artists books created by University of Nicosia art students related to the Pediaios river.

Opening: May 21st 2025, 17:30:20:00
Professor Klimis Mastoridis, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Nicosia will be inaugurating the exhibition.

Free entrance

Exhibition duration: May 22nd 2025 - 05 June 2025, Coco_Creativity Centre, A. G. Leventis Gallery

“I am Pediaios. I am the waters of Nicosia. I spring up in Kionia Mountain in the Machairas Forest. My sibling river Gialias also springs to the surface of the earth there. Gialias and I meet again in the Mesaoria plain and reach the sea near Famagusta and Salamina. I cross mountains, valleys, villages and cities and provide the beings of this land with water. I am the longest river on the island but this year I have no water. My bed and my riverine landscape are drying up.” (Pediaios, 2025)

As our rivers dry up and our water resources become scarce, the exhibition Reading waters draws attention as to how we can read water and aquatic landscapes in twentieth century Cypriot painting drawn from the Cyprus Collection of the A. G. LeventisGallery. These paintings are exhibited together with artist books created by students of the BA in Fine Art and the MA in Digital Art and Design of the University of Nicosia, inspired by the cultural histories and geographies of the Pediaios, the longest river or more precisely torrent, in Cyprus. The exhibition adopts a narrative approach to address our relationship with water and our bodies as part of the physical world. The artworks portrayriverine landscapes and the natural terrain of the torrent, thepresence of water and rivers within the built environment andhow human and non-human entities inhabiting this land interact with its precious, scarce and vital aquatic resources.

The profound shifts in our overuse of these resources and the drying up of our landscape becomes evident through anexpanded vision of contemporary art publishing practices related to waterscapes and riverine stories. These include books, postcards, scrolls, pigment experiments, audio pieces, videos, drawings, paintings and photographs shaping a narrative around our relationship with water, fluidity and the physical world,which surrounds us. These water-focused narratives invite us to think of how we are shaped by our environment and in turn how we shape our environment. They have been mainly developed in response to the book “The River Speaks: Pediaios in Time and Space”, written by Evanthia (Evi) Tselika and Despo Pasia in the context of the research project “Economy, environment, and landscape in the Cypriot longue durée”, https://ecoland.hua.gr/en/outcomes/educational.


Artists from the Cyprus Collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery:
Tristram Ellis
Michael Chr. Kashalos
Ioannis Kissonerghis
Michael Michaelides
Elly S. Mitzis
Loukia Nicolaides-Vassiliou
Nicos Nicolaides
John Thomson

Artist books and contemporary art publishing practices:
Foivi Antoniou
Arja Arasmo
Chara Charalambidou
Polina Chubikina
Andrea Efstathiou
Nagib Elhegagi
Gavriela Evandrou
Panayiota Gabriel
Maria Georgiadou
Anmari Gregoriou
Kyriaki Hadjisolomi
Emelia Kontou
Mojtaba Khorsandi
Anastasia Kourtseva
Christina-Ismini Kyprianou
Anastasia Magniti
Elina Melnikova
Maria Nikolskaia
Celine Roumani
Georgia Pericleous
Anna Psalti
Chloe Siamtani
Michalis Skarparis

Curation:
Dr. Evanthia (Evi) Tselika, University of Nicosia
Theodora Demetriou, A. G Leventis Gallery

Design:
Maria Stavrides, University of Nicosia

Installation, technical support and lighting:
Iacovos Papantoniou and Charalambos Charalambous, A. G. Leventis Gallery

Production Assistance:
Yiannis Hadjipanayis, University of Nicosia

A.G. Leventis Gallery Director:
Katerina Stephanides


A collaboration between the BA in Fine Art, Department of Design and Multimedia, University of Nicosia and A. G. Leventis Gallery.


A. G. Leventis Gallery
5 A. G. Leventis street
1097 Nicosia, Cyprus
+357 22668838
info@leventisgallery.org
https://www.leventisgallery.org/

Opening Hours:
Wednesday 10.00-20.00 | Thursday - Sunday: 10.00-17.00 | Monday & Tuesday closed


BA in Fine Art, University of Nicosia
https://www.unic.ac.cy/fine-art-ba/
Tselika.e@unic.ac.cy