The yearly competition organised by the TRNC Department of Culture

By Heidi Trautmann

There was quality again this year and it was a pleasure to see our young artists’ last works. In the meantime some of them have made progress in their career, have finished their masters and are going on to doctorate, others are still at art college and/or university and on the threshold to mastership, again others are already in teaching and have arrived in the middle of life and society.

The exhibition is at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Nicosia. The director of the Cultural Department, Mrs Nurcan Namsoy, opened the event on the evening of June 4 and congratulated the award winners and other participants.

From 20 entries with 68 works 12 young artists and 24 works were chosen for exhibition by the jury consisting of of Hikmet Uluçam, Hüseyin Özinal and Feridun Işıman. Three participants were given prizes, Hasan Zeybek, Nilüfer Inanim and Zeynep Uzun.

For Hasan and Nilüfer it is not the first successful competition, we can be proud of them. For Zeynep it is the first award, she is a mathematics graduate and a student in Nilgün Güney’s Art Studio.  My respects! By the way, one day in secondary school Hasan and Nilüfer were also students of Nilgün Güney.

My congratulations go also to the other participants in the exhibition: Sanatçının Adı, Ahmet E. Karagöz, Direnç Betmezoğlu, Fatma N. Özoğul, Ibrahim Göy, Ipek Denizli Karagöz, Kemal Behçet Caymaz, Mehmet Sariler, Rahme Manastırlı. They all have something important to say and they do it well.

As it is a group experience I will not discuss the works in detail but on my website I will show most of the paintings on display at AKM and the viewer can judge for him/herself, although it makes a big difference to see art in the original.

You can still do so until June 14 at governmental office hours.