Koula Savvidou, the Cypriot artist known for her painted sculpture and assemblages that mined ideas of memory, motherhood and loss, has died.
She employed plaster, wood, metal and found materials, pursuing an aesthetic both surreal and with nods to mythologies. Neflie (1990–95), for example, is an abstracted human figure constructed of gypsum, metal and ceramic parts, shown holding its head in its hands, the surface textured with pencil and wax.
The piercing of sculpture with sharp blades was a recurring motif in Savvidou’s work: in a 2021 untitled wall work, in which stretches of painted string are held taught between two blocks of wood, a picket knife is slotted precariously between the cord. Likewise, in the metal, stone, graphite and rope work No Man’s Land (1990–1995), a pair of scissors strikes through the arrangement.
Born in London, Savvidou studied fine art at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in France from 1975 to 1981. She took part in the Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Barcelona in 1987, the 17th Alexandria Biennale in 1991 and Mediterraneo per l’Arte Contemporanea in 1989. In 2022 she had a show at Rodeo, Piraeus (the gallery has since been renamed Sylvia Kouvali), presenting works from the period 1987–2021, many from On the Solitary Crossing of Impassable Passages, Savvidou’s solo exhibition that took place at Diaspro Art Centre in Nicosia in 1995.
