Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN think tank to host exhibition in Cyprus

BE OPEN Art, an online art gallery set up by BE OPEN think tank, a humanitarian initiative founded by international businessperson and philanthropist Elena Baturina, is setting up an art exhibition dedicated to emerging artists of the Eastern Mediterranean in Nicosia.

The BE OPEN Regional Art exhibition will be open from 5 to 21 June with free admission at the Centre of Visual Arts and Research.

The exhibition will display the artworks selected by the public and BE OPEN community experts in the course of the BE OPEN Regional Art competition, as well as a selection of visuals by young Cypriot artists.

Jovanna Theodosiou, an artist based in Nicosia who studied Fine Art at Kingston University in the UK, was named Artist of the Region for the Eastern Mediterranean.

In early 2023, BE OPEN started selecting the young artists who best represent the artistic tradition of the Eastern Mediterranean to feature in the BE OPEN Art gallery and take part in the BE OPEN Regional Art competition to offer them greater visibility.

Every month, works by 20 emerging artists from Cyprus, Turkey, the Greek Dodecanese islands, and the countries of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Egypt were posted on the online gallery, for the public to select the Regional Artist of the Month.

Based on the general amount of votes, Jovanna Theodosiou emerged as the Artist of the Region for the Eastern Mediterranean and received a cash prize of €500 as well as major representation at the exhibition.

BE OPEN Regional Art is a series of competitions for emerging artists, aimed at supporting those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities. Each regional stage lasts three months, therefore four stages will be run a year, with a winner named for each of them. The regional winners get the money prize of €500, while a selection of artwork best representing the region form an exhibition, in order to share the art with the wide public and celebrate the artists involved. The ongoing stage of the regional programme is held in the Caribbean, and then BE OPEN Regional Art will travel to Southeast Asia and Central Africa at the end of the year.