In the heart of downtown Nicosia lies the quaint and significant Hambis Municipal Museum of Printmaking. In just a few days, it celebrates a new season with an exhibition by two important artists – Vasso Katraki and Dimitris Alithinos – individuals who though from different generations left a significant mark on the 20th century through their work.

Athenian Katraki (1909-1988) remains one of the most prolific figures in Greek art. Her body of work, honoured with international awards and distinctions (including at the Venice Biennale), reveals, through the expressive power of her formal explorations, the ethical values and universal spirit that defined her creative vision.

In her pieces – characterised by their simplicity, refined austerity of form, and emblematic archetypal figures – her focus is always on the human being, portrayed through the evocative contrast of black and white. Her transition from the traditional technique of woodcut to engraving on stone, in an entirely original manner, opened up unprecedented possibilities.

Athens-born Alithinos (1945) continues to be one of the most important contemporary Greek artists. He developed his artistic vision in the international climate of the social and artistic revolutions of the 1960s, and in the activist and critical artistic practices of the following decades. In Athens, he presented works such as An Event, a deeply political proposal-action and one of the first historic performances in Greece.

From the early 1980s onward, Alithinos ventured into intercultural and interfaith explorations. The universality of archetypal myths, the ritual act, nature and the blending of different cultural traditions form the image of a multifaceted creator. His Katakrypsis works are described as a vast network – a planetary artwork, both visible and invisible; a piece that spreads like a net, transcending geographical, linguistic and political boundaries.

The two artists first met in the early 1970s and, half a century later, come together again in a joint exhibition. The political dimension of their art, as well as their spirit of resistance against all forms of oppressive power structures, are the points of convergence between these two visual artists, whose expressive methods and artistic paths are so distinct. The exhibition emerged from Alithinos’ deep wish to coexist with Vasso – a wish rooted in profound love and admiration for the woman, the creator, the fighter.

As such, the Coexistence exhibition is coming to Nicosia this Thursday, curated by Yiannis Bolis, where it will remain until the end of the year.

Coexistence

Art exhibition by two prolific Greek artists; Vasso Katraki and Dimitris Alithinos. Hambis Municipal Museum of Printmaking, Nicosia. May 22-December 20. Opening event: 7.30pm. Daily: 10am-1.30pm and 5pm-7pm. Tel: 22-496930. www.printmaking.cy