The Thousands

Recently, local art has shown a trend towards water-colour-washed illustration. Kareena Zerefos, however, was doing her thing while the rest were pandering with their pencil cases. Her illustrations are a deft combination of watercolour, felt tip, biro, pencil, gouache and letraset, creating a series of work heavily influenced by childhood memories and dreams. There’s a fantastical element to each piece. Drawing from old photo albums and family videos, as well as old postcards and books, Kareena conveys a strong sense of her childhood self.**The real is often spliced with the unreal. In ‘Rose Tinted Glasses’, a child holds an umbrella under a cartoonish rain-cloud. Butterflies flutter around his feet, creating an almost photographic illustration. This indicates the core of Kareena’s work, a combination of the past and the future, the natural and the unnatural, animals and humans, dreams and nightmares. This will be her first solo show, at the MTV Gallery, come on down and release your inner-child (but have them keep their clothes on, we don’t want the bobbies on our backs).