A major printmaking exhibition bringing together the works of two prominent Greek and Cypriot printmakers, A. Tassos and Hambis, will open at the Municipal Hambis Printmaking Museum in Nicosia on 23 September, organizers announced.
Titled “COEXISTENCE: A. TASSOS – HAMBIS”, the exhibition is curated by Yiannis Bolis in collaboration with the Society of Visual Arts A. Tassos in Athens. Nicosia Mayor Charalambos Prountzos will officially inaugurate the event on Wednesday evening at 19:00.
The exhibition marks a significant milestone for the museum, highlighting how the artistic trajectories of both creators were shaped by the turbulent histories of Greece and Cyprus. While A. Tassos’s work captured twentieth-century Greek struggles—from the dictatorship of the 4th of August and the German Occupation to the Civil War and the colonels’ junta—Hambis’s art reflects the Cypriot experience through British colonial rule, the struggle for independence, the 1974 Turkish invasion, and the ongoing division of the island.
A central theme of the exhibition is the human figure caught in the machinery of history, with both artists focusing on human dignity, freedom, peace, and self-determination.
A. Tassos holds a historical connection to Cyprus, most notably through his artwork Cyprus 1974—depicting a child seated against barbed wire—which became widely recognized as the “Refugee Stamp.” Throughout his career, he also designed and supervised numerous official Cypriot postage stamps highlighting the island’s historical identity and struggles.
The establishment of the Municipal Hambis Printmaking Museum in 2019 extended Hambis Tsangaris’s long-standing effort to promote the art form, which began in 1995 through free printmaking classes offered in memory of A. Tassos at the Hambis School of Printmaking in Platanistia.
The exhibition will run through 24 July 2027. A 200-page illustrated catalogue featuring essays by curator Yiannis Bolis and Irene Orati, President of the Society of Visual Arts A. Tassos, is currently in preparation.
