With a passion for art history, Macedonian painter, Irena Gapkovska, takes inspiration from the Byzantine tradition of icon painting.

Bursting with emotion, feeling and movement, she combines classical anatomical studies with her love of colour and form, to capture the beauty of a fleeting moment in time.

The artist

Irena Gapkovska has lived and worked all over the world. She had a successful studio in her adopted home of Miami and still runs a busy studio in her native home of Skopje, Macedonia.

Now living in the P-O, she also has a studio in central Perpignan which is open to visitors by appointment. As well as producing her own art, she teaches up and coming talent and has trained over 400 students, many of whom are now successful, professional artists.

Gapkovska’s works are sensual and emotive, celebrating the joy of human movement by combining precise anatomical drawings with expressive, spontaneous strokes of colour. Inspired heavily by nature, the seasons and the cycle of life, she redefines the spiritual Byzantine tradition with her unique, modern approach.

INVITATION

Irena Gapkovska

La naissance de Vénus : Au delà du ciel

The Birth of Venus : Push the Sky Away 

VERNISSAGE et SOIRÉE

Opening: Thursday 19th January at 18h30

Come and visit the exhibition until 6 March 23 at the Café Vienne, Pl. François Arago, Perpignan

My art connects traditions from both Macedonia and the Mediterranean. The two traditions are similar in their colours, forms and themes.
Traditions have the power to transcend time, cultures and geopolitical borders.
We find similar symbols: rebirth, darkness towards the light, life and beyond.
As day follows night, my works represent these cycles of life and the spirit of nature.

Ma peinture se réfère aux traditions macédoniennes et méditerranéennes, proches par leurs couleurs, formes et thèmes.
Les traditions ont ce pouvoir de transcender le temps, les cultures et les frontières géopolitiques.
On retrouve les symboles similaires : la renaissance, l’obscurité vers la lumière, la vie, l’au-delà …
Comme le jour suit la nuit, mes œuvres représentent ces cycles de vie et l’esprit de la nature. 

The artist says…

“As a Macedonian artist, I am inspired by the Byzantine influence. My works are usually rather surreal and emphasize the human form in a symbolic way. Employing the aesthetics of ancient Macedonian art to express the spirituality of the subject, I create a bridge between abstract and figurative realities, merging them in an authentic way with an intuitive approach to make a unique visual story of symbolic expression.”