Gloria Gallery in Nicosia is hosting the exhibition by Rinos Stefani entitled: “The Man Who Carries Holes”. The opening will take place on Friday, March 13, 2026, at 7:30 pm. An introduction will be made by visual artist Christos Foukaras and musician-composer Evagoras Karageorgis. The exhibition will remain open until April 3. Three sections will be presented: Perforated, Re Alexis, Landscapes.
Niki Loizidi, Professor Emeritus in the History Art, Athens School of Fine Arts, states: “Rinos Stefani draws material from personal childhood memories, adventurous journeys to distant places, from wars and revolutionary uprisings of the past. Judging from the strongly political, social, and historical dimensions of these works, Stefani, both as an artist and as a thinking person, harbors no illusions about the course and development of Cypriot history. It suffices to mention a noteworthy thematic motif (the load bearer) which appears in multiple variations and, through a potent dose of bitterness and sarcasm, conceals a deep yet compellingly revelatory meaning. In the exceptional diptych “Buffer Zone”, the load bearer is shown holding a mass of stones in his hands. In the section “Perforated”, there is a composition where the bearer is depicted lifting a bunch of grenades with his hands and in another composition in the same section the bearer has as a painful burden a sack of…holes! “The Man who carries holes”. The means of attack or building materials carried by the previous figures have been transformed into sacks riddled with holes which – judging by the strained posture of the porters – must be very… heavy! The artist pierced the surface of the canvas – made of old military material – with a red-hot iron bar, or even a piece of burning wood. Stefani seems to suspect that it is wrong to underestimate these mysterious openings into the void that we call perforations, or more plainly, holes. They exist in the Universe – horrifying, chaotic, and unexplained. They exist in Nature, in History, in human affairs, and above all, in the human mind. The theme of the “Perforated” is, in a way, the reverse version of the 1994 series of his “Human Targets”. In the work of Rinos Stefani, the Dancer is the dominant, almost ever-present theme. He is standing upright; arms wide open with deep roots in the ancient past. Stefani’s Dancer is a timeless symbol that encapsulates the great passions that have deeply marked the island’s History.”
