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- Ελληνικά
The Deputy Ministry of Culture expresses its deepest sorrow for the death of the painter Eleni Nicodimou, an artist whose work and public presence marked the visual arts scene of Cyprus for the last forty years.
Eleni Nicodimou was born in 1955 in Alona. After completing her secondary education at the Pancyprian Gymnasium of Pallouriotisis Girls in Nicosia, she attended the Athens School of Economics and Commerce (A.S.O.E.E.E., now the Athens University of Economics and Business) from 1973 to 1977. A year later, in 1978, he enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he graduated in 1983, having studied painting and printmaking.
He worked at the Cité Internationale des Arts from 1981 to 1984, and was a fellow of the French government (1981-1983 and 1987-1988), the EOMMEX (1980) and the Leventis Foundation (1985-1986). In 1986 he was awarded first prize in the Matisse competition, which was organised by the French Embassy in Cyprus.
She presented her work in many solo exhibitions in Paris, Athens, Nicosia, Nicosia, Lisbon, as well as in international events such as the 16th and 17th Biennale of Engraving in Ljubljana in 1985 and 1986, the 2nd Biennale of Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean in Thessaloniki in 1986, and the 8th Biennale of Engraving in Norway, also in 1986.
Eleni Nicodimou was also a distinguished track and field athlete in middle distance and uneven track. She started competing from the age of 14, while still a schoolgirl. Characteristic of her passion and determination is the fact that she competed not only in her own age category, but also in the junior and women's categories, even managing to beat older athletes. Alongside her studies in Athens, she trained with the internationally renowned Hungarian coach Mihali Igloi, and was a member of both the Greek and Cypriot national athletics teams.
Above all, Eleni Nicodimou was a great visual artist. Behind her abstract works lies a complex, sensitive and yet dynamic, soulful world. Even when she lived in a small apartment in Paris, she painted large monumental paintings. With great skill he worked the multi-fingered "eye-glasses", of which he always spoke with great pride, and embroidered details with thread. He was a perfectionist and devoted much time and effort to each work until he decided it was complete. Each exhibition reflected her concerns and dreams ("Guardian Angels No Longer Have Wings" in 2003, "Choose Your Fear" in 2011), as well as her memories and experiences of her life in Alona ("With Pencil and Thread...." in 2018). Through her exhibition "Document" in 2012, she had the courage to protest the political and economic situation of our country. Eleni Nikodimou, moreover, has always been characterized by a disarming honesty and directness. In recent years she turned to writing and managed, despite serious health problems, to complete her book 'Journey in the Rain'. It is autobiographical and deals with her life in Alona, her student years in Athens, the Polytechnic uprising, the invasion, her studies in Paris. With a special writing, this new work by Eleni Nicodimou is a personal narrative that, like her paintings, is unique.
Eleni Nicodimou leaves us her Art, a body of work that is heartbreaking in its painstaking manual gesture, which will always transmit to us the unquenchable love of its creator for life.
The Ministry of State for Culture expresses its deepest condolences to her husband, Raphael Ryx, and to her entire family.
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