HELBI

A Russian, an Armenian and two Bulgarian artists who live and work in Greece have the right to be called philhellenes, seeing as Greece is the place where they choose to live but also provides their subject matter. In the spirit of multiculturalism, the Athens Municipality’s Cultural Organization on Tuesday opened an exhibition at the city’s arts center (Eleftherias Park, Vassilissis Sofias Avenue) where visitors will see things through these artists’ eyes. Bulgarian Stoian Donev pays homage to the poems of Constantine P. Cavafy, painting his own visions inspired by the Alexandrian’s poems – poems such as “The City,” “The Candles,” ”The Room” and “Thermopylae” inspire an outburst of lines and color, including Cavafy’s signature. Martin Krastev, also from Bulgaria, moves in the real world and finds happiness in simple subjects, such as beehives on mountainsides. Alexei Kyrilloff, a Russian, harks back to antiquity, which, for him, is the beginning and the end (the alpha and omega) of his psyche, with real and mythical beings viewed with a modern eye. Two places express him: St Petersburg, where he was born, and Athens, where he has chosen to live. Ponchi Armen Proyan, from Armenia, takes us on a journey into his own poetic world, with the colors of his sensuous palette – a red tree, gold earth, with only the sky and stars keeping their own true colors. His women-sirens remain pampered children playing with (invisible) men. This interesting exhibition ends on October 22.