Duality - Lara Sophie Benjamin & Hannah Uhde

The exhibition will be opened by artist Andros Efstathiou, Tuesday 2 October 2018 at 7.30p.m.

DURATION: 2 -13 October 2018

Duality is an exhibition of paintings resulting from a collaboration between Cypriot artist Lara Sophie Benjamin and American artist Hannah Uhde. The pair, who both have strong individual identities as painters, were drawn together by shared motives and the need to explore new territory and challenge themselves.

The project is rooted in two parallel elements bringing together the mental and the physical: their common passion for the physicality of the painting process and the breakdown of their inner visions of the human figure.

Within this, the artists also pursued two parallel lines of investigation, by painting a series of pieces each, separately but in the collaborative environment, and a series of pieces on which they both worked interchangeably.

While all this had to begin on an introspective level, through collaboration, friendship and exchange, it became an exploration of the relationship and rapport between the artists and their responses to each other and their painting. They moved beyond self expression to examine their connection and roles, celebrating similarities in styles, approaches and ideologies, as well as the qualities that make them different.

The resulting renditions embody an investigation into the self and our connections to the people and the world around us, emotional states and the human condition.

Although the interpretations are personal, they are also universal.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Lara Sophie Benjamin is a Cypriot artist born in Nicosia, where she is currently based. She is predominantly a painter who works in oil paints. She studied art at Camberwell College of Arts, the Cyprus College of Art, and lastly University Campus Suffolk, from where she received a Master’s in Arts Practice in 2015. The artist draws subject matter from her everyday surroundings and finds a significant resonance in ordinary sights, emotions and spaces. She is interested in their experiential nature, subjective and selective readings and the light and the forms created within them. Benjamin works intuitively and painting for her is an unending process of exploration and discovery based on formal and aesthetic qualities and the versatility of paint. Her work has been exhibited in Cyprus, the UK, France and Italy, and is part of many private and public collections, including the National Collection of Cyprus and that of the Central Bank of Cyprus.

Hannah Uhde is an American artist whose creativity was sparked by her upbringing in rural Montana. She studied oil painting under Stass Paraskos at the Cyprus College of Art in 2009 and went on to obtain her MA at the University of Northampton, earning the Bonarota Award for Excellence and graduating with honours. While her passion for oil painting lies in the raw and gritty parts of the human figure, light and movement are essential to her work. Uhde produces a few solo exhibitions a year and has exhibited at the Paris Gibson Museum of Art and the Emerson Centre for the Cultural Arts. She plays an active role in many non-profit organisations that support the arts, women in business, and environmental awareness. Uhde currently divides her time and passion between her two studios in Cyprus and Montana.

Working Hours:
Monday 17.00-20.00
Tuesday-Friday 10.30-12.30 & 17.00-20.00
Saturday 10:30 - 12.30