X-Nico

Michael Paraskos

He went on to attend the University of Leeds and University of Nottingham, studying at Nottingham with Fintan Cullen to gain his doctorate on the aesthetic theories of Herbert Read in 2005.

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As this suggests, Paraskos's route into anarchism might have its origins in his earlier academic studies into Herbert Read, but in Paraskos's own work this interest has evolved into a theory of art in which a direct parallel is made between the anarchist desire to free the individual from society and what Paraskos claims is the artists' desire to be free from existing culture.

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In 2009 he was asked to join the judging panel for the Marsh Award for Public Sculpture, an annual award organised by the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA) for the best public sculpture of the year in Britain or Ireland.

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In 2008 Paraskos also edited a book of essays on the British anarchist art theorist Herbert Read for the anarchist publishing house the Freedom Press, and he has spoken at anarchist studies conferences in the UK.

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In 2006 Paraskos wrote an article for the Cypriot art newspaper ArtCyprus entitled 'Portrait of the Artist as a Terrorist' in which he used the theories of Francesco de Sanctis to argue that art creates new realities by destroying old ones.

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Taking his cue from the theories of Herbert Read, for Paraskos art becomes a material manifestation of the physical engagement between the artist and the world around them (called by Paraskos 'actuality').

Nicosia International Airport

In 2013 Dr Michael Paraskos of the Cornaro Institute in Cyprus argued that with three other functioning airports in Cyprus the old Nicosia Airport would no longer be needed even in the event of a political settlement on the island.

Steve Whitehead

Is the subject of a monograph book by the art critic of the Epoch Times, Michael Paraskos.

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Whitehead's art is sometimes described as a form of Photorealism, although according to the art critic Michael Paraskos it is more like a Poetic Realism, as Whitehead does not simply reproduce photographs in paint, but creates composite images, drawing on many photographs and historic art images.

The New Aesthetics

The origin of the New Aesthetics lies in an art summer school held in Irsee, southern Germany, in 2007 and the joint class held there by the English artist Clive Head and the Anglo-Cypriot writer and art theorist Michael Paraskos.