An exhibition of watercolour artworks by Dr Spyridon Mouratidis has gone on display at the N. Smith Gallery in the Sydney suburb of Paddington.
One look at the exhibition takes visitors back to the period of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, as Dr Mouratidis’ brush strokes capture the trauma of refugees who were torn from their homes at the time and lost all their personal belongings.
The exhibition is part of this year’s Greek Festival of Sydney and is being proudly supported by the Hellenic Lyceum of Sydney.
At the official opening of the exhibition, a number of speeches were given by the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis; the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW), Harry Danalis; the Chair of the Greek Festival of Sydney, Nia Karteris; and the President of the Hellenic Lyceum of Sydney, Liana Vertzayias; and the artist himself, Dr Mouratidis.
In her speech, Ms Vertzayias said it was a pleasure to be partnering with the Greek Festival of Sydney for the exhibition. Dr Mouratidis then took to the podium and briefly described some of the water colour artworks which are on display.
“I hope that, after seeing my paintings, I will have eventually succeeded in directing your thoughts for a while to all those people who lost their lives in the Asia Minor Catastrophe, as well as to those who survived and with their wounds open, they have managed to stand on their feet and build a new life in Greece,” the artist said.
“If so, I will have achieved my objective; to hold a memorial service here with you, as a debt repayment towards all those people.”
The event concluded with guests mingling amongst themselves and remarking on the tangible beauty of the artworks.
Dr Mouratidis will be giving a lecture about ‘The Debt’ exhibition on Tuesday, March 7 at the The Gallery Beta Bar in Sydney at 6.30pm.
