Cyprus Students Prize 2025

This drawing captures a moment of raw clarity and confrontation. Using colored pencils, I created a worn, almost eroded texture, as if the figure is fading or disintegrating. Deep, intense hues black, blue, and brown contrast sharply with the illuminated skin, heightening the sense of exposure and vulnerability. Inspired by Egon Schiele’s expressive figure paintings, I directed my model through ambiguous, contorted movements to evoke tension and unease. To blur the line between drawing and photography, reality and imagination, I painted directly onto her skin, producing a ghostly, clown-like effect. This aesthetic hints at themes of humiliation and the exploitation of women, reinforcing the unsettling yet captivating atmosphere of the piece.

This work expresses our need to hide parts of ourselves, whether out of fear or necessity. The hands cover the face, but the eyes are visible, creating a sense of inner conflict. I chose black and white because it gives intensity and emphasizes light and shadows, just as it happens with the emotions that we sometimes show and sometimes keep inside.

Μy workspace, my thoughts, my journeys.

The layers of identity dissolve not the abstraction, blurring the line between self and memory. A reflection of how time erodes yet preserves fragments of who we are.

Inspired by firsthand photography from my trip to Barcelona, this acrylic painting captures the fluid, dreamlike forms of Gaudí’s architecture. The organic curves and intricate stained glass details reflect the artist’s fascination with movement and light, as seen in Casa Batlló’s skeletal façade. The warm earth tones contrast with the vibrant blues and purples of the glass, creating a dynamic interplay of color and shadow. This piece is not just a representation of a building but an exploration of how architecture can feel alive, shifting and breathing with the city around it.

From 2019 to 2025, my designs weave moments, thoughts and dreams into a magical symphony. A reflection of a transformed inner world, which, by uniting ages, preserves eternal truths

Portrait inspired by a family friend.

The light and colors of autumn were the inspiration for the creation of the work

The artwork features a decaying tree enclosed within a circular frame, surrounded by tangled strings of various colours. The strings represent chaos and entanglement, contrasting with the tree’s decay, symbolizing the clash between nature’s decay and the complexity of life’s connections.

“Allegory of Literature” is a Rococo style portrait, personifying literature as a woman, magnifying, therefore, the grace and beauty of literacy and poetry.

This piece captures confidence and defiance, showcasing a woman’s bold stance against societal expectations. The wet hair and intense gaze symbolize liberation and the raw power of embracing one’s true self.

The work captures the deep connection of the Woman with Mother Nature, highlighting the strength, endurance and life-giving energy they share. The female form emerges from the ground, with roots surrounding her and uniting her with the natural environment, symbolizing birth, rebirth and the timeless power of femininity. The sculpture expresses the harmony between the female existence and nature, promoting the idea of ​​empowerment through a return to the roots, a connection with the earth and the acceptance of inner and outer beauty.

This painting was one of my first works where I experimented more with my line, letting it be more free in space. The goal was to create a color atmosphere, like Wong Kar Wai does in his films. The only face looking up, which is essentially a self-portrait of me, stands out from the rest, thus giving a sense of being trapped in the crowd.

This oil painting explores the eye as an unchanging threshold between the inner self and the external world. While hands can shield or manipulate perception, the eye remains an unmasked conduit of truth.

I focused on the power struggle faced by child brides in Afghanistan, emphasizing their yearning for escape. The use of lighting plays a key role in this, with the overhead light symbolizing the hope for salvation from a higher power. It reflects their desperate desire for freedom, as these girls, stripped of basic human rights, must mature rapidly to survive in a world that limits their autonomy. The subject is fully draped in white fabric, traditionally worn by brides, symbolizing innocence. However, it also conveys themes of suffocation, loss of freedom, and the policing of women’s bodies, with societal expectations imposed on young girls from an early age. The lace covering her eyes symbolizes how these girls are blinded to the truth, believing this fate is a normal part of their culture due to government-driven propaganda. The overhead light also represents the media’s role in bringing attention to their struggles, but its incomplete coverage hints at the darker, hidden truths that still need to be exposed. The shadows serve as a reminder that not all secrets have been unveiled, and only by revealing them can these girls hope for freedom and a better life.

The artwork accentuates the themes of imprisonment and entrapment imposed on women by societal gender stereotypes. The intricate net overlaying the subject’s face serves as a metaphor for these societal constrains, visually communicating how deeply entrenched these limitations can feel. The net is left blank to reflect resolvement and breaking free, acting as a hopeful yet dynamic element. The title shows that instead of letting these limitations define her, the model instead redefines her identity and emerges stronger, contributing to the complexity of her power, despite the emotional toll this transformation may entail.

The concept behind this piece is to evoke my emotions and feelings and mental state. This is a self-portrait thus my intentions were to embrace non stabile mindset and create this juxtaposition of a calming exterior (facial expression) but use abstract elements to show mixed unorganized thoughts (the strigs knotted and folding with each other). Overall wanting to portray to the viewers that is common to hide our messy mentality and act calm and unbothered in the exterior.

For my piece I used the pointillism technique, meticulously placing tiny dots to bring my vision to life. I drew inspiration from ancient Greek mythology, a culture deeply intertwined with nature. The gods of Mount Olympus were not only rulers of the heavens but also protectors and embodiments of the natural world. I illustrated Mount Olympus itself, the sacred home of the gods, as a powerful representation of nature’s grandeur.I included Nymphs, ethereal spirits of the land, forests, and waters, symbolizing nature’s vitality and its intimate bond with divine forces. The crow, owl, and dove each hold deep symbolic meaning—the crow often linked to Apollo, represents foresight and connection to the cycles of life; the owl, sacred to Athena, embodies wisdom and the mysterious depths of the natural world; and the dove, associated with Aphrodite, signifies peace, love, and harmony with nature. Through this piece, I aimed to capture the timeless reverence that mythology holds for the earth, reminding us of the deep connection humanity has always shared with nature.

A girl who got lost in a forest.

The main topic of this piece is dreaming and wishing combined with fairytale stories atmosphere. In childhood, having a dream is a motivation to do actions to reach it and children usually do not care if their dreams are realistic or not. Reading fairy tales often supplements their own imagination and the children often create their own world. This artwork illustrates a fantasy world of a child’s dream and the willingness to keep dreaming which is so much needed these days.

This painting represents the distortion in society, as well as the distortion of oneself. The artist aims to show and challenge how someone can look different on the outside and be in one room as someone yet be thinking completely different things. The face made of jumbled up shapes represents how the person can be thinking a complete mess of useless thoughts which can distort the way someone sees something and their perception. The person in the chair could be taken as an over thinker; alone yet with so many thoughts. The two people in conversation seem to be talking to each other yet it seems as if they don’t really understand one another; as if they are in a nonverbal conversation. The lamp connects the person in the armchair to the conversing people and casts the shadow of the dominant man over the other men’s, in a way bringing the room together.

This painting evokes the crisp, invigorating air of an autumn morning, capturing that fleeting moment when the world begins to shift into gold. It conveys the quiet beauty of the changing season, as sunlight filters through turning leaves and the atmosphere hums with a gentle stillness. It’s a celebration of nature’s transition—a sensory memory of cool air, warm tones, and the peaceful promise of fall.

‘Shifting Presence’ captures the feeling of moving through time and space, showing the self in fragments to represent change and repetition. The abstract background reflects shifting environments, while the repeated figures suggest transformation and movement. This artwork explores how we leave traces of ourselves as we move, highlighting the connection between past and present.

My painting is a mixed media painting that captures myself in a sequence of movement, frozen in 3 different stages of motion. My body is duplicated in a flowing progression, emphasising the fluidity of movement. The colourful fabric collaged and stitched onto the clothing contrasts with the blue background, adding texture and vibrancy to the piece.

The painting depicts a city scene, where the figures of people are lost in the crowd. The palette of cool blues and warm yellows and oranges creates a strong atmosphere of contrast. Among the crowd, a woman in an orange coat stands out, who seems to be in a state of isolation, despite being surrounded by people. The work intensifies the feeling of urban loneliness and alienated crowds. The work is influenced by artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Lyonel Feininger.

Eliana is a fictional character embodying resilience and strength. Shaped by a past of harrowing trauma, she emerges from the darkness with blood-stained skin yet an unshaken stance. She is a fighter, a force of defiance, proving that even after the hardest battles, one can rise—unbroken and unyielding.

It depicts a train full of anthropomorphic animals. The contrast between the natural world and man-made progress. The train represents industrialization and movement, while the anthropomorphic animals reflect the way in which nature adapts, evolves, or is forced to coexist with human advances. Each group holding different species of animals can also suggest themes of separation, diversity, or unity – do the animals remain in their own spaces by choice, or is it a reflection of the way society categorizes and separates different groups? The black and white symbolize opposites that coexist – nature and industry, past and future, movement and stillness, unity and separation. The train, a man-made creation, transports creatures of the wild, suggesting a world where nature and culture are intertwined. But in black and white, the scene almost feels like a memory, a dream, or a question: Are they just passengers or are they heading towards an uncertain future?

This portrait represents my beloved grandfather who remained as a sweet memory in my mind and soul.

This drawing is a celebration of joy in its rawest, purest form. The frog on the boy’s nose represents the unexpected, the simple, silly parts in life that often light up our faces. His eyes closed and his bright smile reflect the trust in the moment, in nature, in the simple magic of being alive. My drawing represents the happiness when you are not trying too hard to feel it – just like a child. I hope my drawing makes someone smile, even for just a second. That’s the power of joy. That’s the power of my piece.

The painting reflects the impact of external influences of personal identity and thought. The fragmented features, intersecting lines and questions symbolise the intrusive nature of external voices – societal expectations, relationships and self doubt that shape and distort one’s sense of self.