Published to coincide with the exhibition of paintings by the artist Stass Paraskos at the Pafos Municipal Art Galley as part of the celebrations for Pafos 2017: European Capital of Culture, "Stass Paraskos: A Celebration" introduces the most famous artist to emerge from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Born in Cyprus in 1933 Stass Paraskos was grew up in poverty, spending his childhood in a small Cypriot village called Anaphotia. He emigrated to England in 1953, settling in the city of Leeds, where he accidentally ended up an art student at Leeds College of Art, and soon became an artist. Yet in 1966 Paraskos was arrested in Leeds and charged under the Vagrancy Acts for displaying obscene paintings, an event that made him famous.
But it was not only in England that Paraskos was making his mark. In 1969 in Cyprus he founded the island's first art college, the Cyprus College of Art.