Today’s Featured Artist is talented Cypriot animator, painter and printmaker Charalambos Margaritis.

Charalambos graduated from the National Superior Fine Arts School of Paris (ENSBA) in 2012. His work is centered around printmaking, animated films, drawing and painting. In 2010 he studied the traditional icon painting techniques with the monk Paisios Agrapides in the Cell of Saint Archangels in Karyes of Mount Athos, where he resided for three months.

To see more of Charalambos’ work, visit his blog and his profile on Vimeo.

He taught drawing and animated film techniques to children from 8 to 15 years old on three occasions: firstly, during 2011 and 2012, as a part of the creative writing workshops of “La Cité des Mots”, organized by the writer Catherine Zoungrana in Paris. Then, on December 2013, in the Centre Pompidou, during the event “Stopmotion”. Finally, for the post-diploma program “AIMS” (Artiste Intervenant en Milieu Scolaire) of the Fine Arts Schools of Paris, that takes place in Saint Ouen (suburb of Paris). He also taught drawing in HEC (Haute Ecole de Commerce) for the year 2014 – 2015. In 2013 he worked as a member of the admissions jury for the entrance examinations of the Fine Arts School of Paris.

He participated in several exhibitions in France, as the event “Graver Maintenant” in Reuil Malmaison in 2009, the second edition of the International Drawing Fair (FID) in Paris in 2010, the exhibition “Nulla Dies Sine Linea” in the library of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris in 2011, the Salon of Poissy in Paris in 2013 and in all the Sarcelles’ Engraving Biennales since 2009. In Cyprus he participated, in December of 2013, in the exhibition “Othellos – Rebirth” that took place in the Othellos cinema theater, part of the European Capital of Culture of Paphos. In October 2014 he worked with the classical music ensemble “Trio Dell’Arte”, creating three animated shorts for three of their concerts in Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos. In April 2015 he participated in the Street Art Square Festival.

His film “Workhouse” (2012), participated in the London Greek Film Festival, the International Motion Festival in Nicosia, the Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Festival, the Sarmat International Independent Film Festival, the Depth of Field International Film Festival and the Blow-Up Chicago International Art House Film Fest. It was preselected for the Los Angeles Cinefest. For “Workhouse” he received the Best Animator Award in the Anim8fest International Animation Film Festival. His film “Large Scale Absurdities, Vol. 1” received the Award of Recognition at the IndieFest Film Awards.

Additionally, Charalambos has created (alone and in collaboration with others) video clips for several musicians in Greece and in France, such as the group Active Member, Yiorgos Zambetas, the group Pulcinella, Ian Balzan and others.

He is a member of the artistic collective “Miracle”, that is based in Paris but collaborates with a lot of artists (plasticians, poets, writers, philosophers and others) in many countries, such as Benin, Hungary and England. With “Miracle he participated in January 2015 in the F.OFF festival of comics in Angoulème.

In September 2015 he founded Kimonos Art Center in Paphos, together with Yiannis Sakellis, Nicolas Iordanou and Sylvia Nicolaides.