The Art of Balance
A solo exhibition by Kika Pierides
Cyprus High Commissioner’s Residence, London | 2025
Welcome. You’ve just scanned the QR code to enter the narrative world of The Art of Balance. This exhibition is a reflection of Kika Pierides’ creative evolution—a journey of rhythm, emotion, and intuitive balance. Read on for the full story behind the work, or simply pause, breathe, and take in what resonates.
A Practice of Balance, Rhythm & Intuition
Kika Pierides is a Contemporary Patternist whose work emerges from the invisible and quiet spaces between balance, rhythm, and intuition. For Kika, creating art is not just a practice—it is a way of being. Each pattern and composition becomes a tangible ritual of emotional processing, echoing the meditative practices that recentre her each day.
A Visual Journey Through Emotion
The Art of Balance offers a visual journey through Kika’s evolving artistic process—where emotion takes form.
Begin upstairs to trace the origins of her practice in landscape photography. Through the lens, she framed perception and uncovered subtle rhythms and patterns in everyday moments. These early images led organically into collaged landscapes, and then abstract collages—metaphors for thought puzzles and the search for inner order.
While collage remains the conceptual heart of her work, she now approaches form with playful spontaneity—deconstructing and reconstructing simple shapes. Intuition leads the way, giving rise to the rhythms and patterns that shape her current painting practice.
A Celebration of Pattern and Emotion
In the reception and dining rooms, you’ll find joyful, colourful, asymmetrical abstract patterns. These compositions evolve from basic shapes—expanded, simplified, and reimagined through intuitive flow.
At the heart of this process is why Kika identifies as a Contemporary Patternist: a celebration of rhythm in nature, the vibrancy of colour, and the embodiment of emotional experience.
Though radiant and uplifting, this work has also emerged through grief—mirroring life’s cycles: cutting, pasting, adjusting, and honouring the process through paint.
A Sound Collaboration: Painting Meets Music
One highlight of the exhibition is a special collaboration with Drawing Music artist Elizabeth Mikellides, who composed a musical response to a painting from the Swirlies series.
Known for turning music into visual form, Elizabeth reversed her process—drawing music from colour, pattern, and rhythm. The result is a deeply resonant conversation between visual and sonic expression.
🎧 Scan the QR code below to listen to the piece.
The Folio Books
Accompanying the exhibition are folio books—designed to be explored at your own pace.
They offer a deeper dive into Kika’s creative evolution, from landscapes and abstract asymmetry into contemporary pattern. You’ll also find behind-the-scenes work exploring contrast through texture—offering an emotional counterbalance to the structured rhythm of her paintings.
A Meditative Practice Made Visible
This interplay between inner and outer life is central to The Art of Balance. Just as Kika clears her mind on long walks through London’s parks, practices yin yoga, or uses breathwork to recentre, her art becomes a form of meditation—an act of navigating change and restoring equilibrium.
A Tribute to Legacy & Healing
Ultimately, this exhibition is also a tribute—to her grandmother, a woman who transformed wartime hardship into beauty and grace. Her legacy of strength, healing, and resilience lives on through this work.
An Invitation
The Art of Balance invites you to step into an ongoing journey of emotional navigation and celebration.
As you move through the exhibition—or scroll through this page—you witness a visual diary of transformation: from complexity to clarity, from structure to flow.
Pause, breathe, and perhaps discover your own moment of balance within these spaces.
Available Works & Folios
Interested in a piece you've seen at the exhibition?
A selection of original paintings and folio editions are available.
📄 Download inventory & price list: [Link to PDF or inventory page]
📩 Enquire about a piece: Send an image with any question to kika@kikapierides.com
Contact & Collaborations
For commissions, collaborations, or upcoming events:
📧 Email: kika@kikapierides.com
🌐 Website: www.kikapierides.com
📸 Instagram: @kikapierides
My Story
Born in London in 1979 to a Greek Cypriot family, I discovered my love for patterns and nature early in life. At 14, M.C. Escher’s work ignited my artistic journey, but it was my grandmother—an incredible lady who transformed wartime hardship into art—whose act shaped my understanding of creativity as a healing force. Her resilience in creating beauty amid adversity became the foundation of my own approach to art as a way to process life’s complexities.
I built my artistic foundation at La Sainte Union School and Hampstead Fine Arts College before completing a Foundation in Art and Design at Wimbledon School of Art. I went on to earn a BA (Honours) in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins. Over the years, my work has been exhibited internationally, including at The Flux Factory in New York and The Vinopolis in London. My photographic work was licensed through a leading stock agency to organizations such as BBC and Microsoft, and I was also a Contributing Photographer to Getty Images. My fine art pieces are represented in Bridgeman Images’ Contemporary Library, and I have work featured at Camden Collective. Alongside my creative practice, I spent a decade teaching in London colleges and working as a freelance educator.
In 2019, after the loss of my father, I returned to creating art. What emerged was an intuitive approach to pattern-making—a process that became both a form of healing and the foundation of my artistic voice. My work spans colourful paper collages, paintings, and screen prints, guided by intuition rather than rigid design. Each composition evolves organically, forming abstract, asymmetrical patterns that reflect both inner landscapes and natural forms.
As an active member of ArtCan and Crouch End Open Arts Studio, I remain deeply connected to London’s artistic community. My debut solo exhibition, ‘A Language of Healing’ at The Playroom Gallery in Archway (November 2024), is both a retrospective of my signature style and a chronicle of my journey from grief to joy through artistic expression.
Looking ahead, I continue to explore new dimensions in pattern work, pushing the boundaries between intuition and intention. So far this year, I have also exhibited at The Affordable Art Fair in Battersea and I will also being taking part in a residency with a | space | between, where I will be creating therapeutic exercises for art packs that will be distributed to over 20 hospitals nationwide for patients and staff in July and August.