Cypriot artist Andreas Stylianou is to open ‘Extinction Point’, a solo exhibition in London that uses ceramics, metal and neon to explore rarity and the value placed on things that can happen only once.
The show runs from 17 to 22 November at The Tagli, a gallery at 67 Great Titchfield Street.
According to the gallery, the exhibition treats ‘the point’ as both a mark and a moment: something carved, excavated, recorded, created or reached. It looks at how rarity arises in nature, through chance, evolution and geological events, and how it is manufactured in culture through value, scarcity and desire. Trading cards, with their detailed systems of classification, are one reference point, the gallery says, and that logic carries into ceramic works about how something new comes into being: its making, materials, colour and form.
The gallery describes extinction as perhaps the ultimate rare event, since an animal can become extinct only once and a volcano can stop being active only once. The circle recurs throughout the work as a metaphor for the point, marking either a beginning or an end.
The first chapter of the metal works focuses on cultural firsts that can never be repeated: the Moon landing, the first full-length animated film and the first trading cards. The neon works borrow the bright visual language of animation to mask something darker: the possibility of disappearance and the end of things.
Stylianou, who was born in Nicosia in 1990, is a painter and sculptor. He studied at the Architectural Association in London and holds master’s degrees from the Royal College of Art in London and IE Business School in Madrid.
His work draws on biographical narratives, reimagined cultural archetypes, vivid colour and techniques informed by his background in architecture, according to the gallery. He has held solo exhibitions in Cyprus, the US, the UK, Canada and Hong Kong, and has taken part in group exhibitions in several countries, including Italy and Germany.
The opening night is on Tuesday, 17 November, from 6pm to 9pm, by RSVP only, with press previews earlier that day from 11am to 4pm by appointment. The gallery is open from 11am to 7pm Tuesday to Saturday, and from 11am to 4pm on Sunday.
