ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Fear and anxiety are provoked by the data we receive from world events. In the current, digital zeitgeist, data is intensified, compelling the viewer to reduce such vivid overload from three dimensions to two, thereby minimizing engagement. As an artist, however, I am not content with flat encounters, and it is for this reason that I have sought to relieve the psychic pressure by transposing such information back into the world of space.
Installation and construction became the obvious media of choice. In 2003, in interpreting my own lingering anxieties about 9/11, I began work on a walk-in space that resumes a vital discussion on public safety left off decades ago: The result was Airbox (2003 – 2006, 240×300x244 cm, 96×120x96 inches), a stylized fallout shelter built of polypropylene, paper, styrofoam, and clear vinyl. Airbox represents a fully non-functional solution to our most dysfunctional issues. The piece required three years to complete and was created specifically to allow for translucence. Light gently filters through it, blurring the division between safety and hazard, the irony rendered, the disconnect made.
Ideas for other work in three dimensions quickly followed. In 2008, MoMA’s Design and the Elastic Mind asserted that contemporary human thought requires new tools to process the rapid changes transforming our society. In this vein, I had already begun the Charts series (2006 – 2009). Given impetus by a graph printed in The New York Times illustrating imbalances in salaries/earnings/profits of multinational corporations during the financial crisis, I employed not only traditional color, shape, and line, but also plastic water bottles, drinking straws, electrical wires, plexiglas, plastic, staples, light—and even broken glass from the violent demonstrations in Athens at that time—to transform this and other data. The goal was a viewing experience that, like functional graphs and charts, eases the intake of information. Charts move the viewer toward interpretation, their multidimensionality creating a mental space in which to proceed. Further explorations for the series have included energy companies’ performances on the New York Stock Exchange, and the motion and symmetry of the earth’s natural elements.
Yet, as I moved through the umbrage of our current predicaments, light became an unlikely motif. I found it in intervening spaces, at the periphery, or subtly emanating from the center of my pieces, even when not intended. This reflection inspired two studies on luminance: Interstice (2011) and Nacreum (2011). These works manifest a move toward the translucent, beyond the former, heavier materials. Plexiglas, layers of diaphanous surfaces, and intervening space suggest a new place to be.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 Black & White Gallery, Refused Reused, Chelsea, New York.
2008 Tsatsis Projects Artforum, Thessaloniki.
2006 Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Art Appel Gallery, ‘Pinned, Stitched, and Glitzed’, Athens, Greece.
2017 Mykonos Biennale, “Antidote”, Delos Island, curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos.
2017 Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, “The Right to be Human” curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Harry Savvopoulos. Thessaloniki, Greece.
2016 Asian Art Works, 2016, Pinned, stitched and Glitzed, Beijing, China.
2015 Depo Darm, Timeffect, Athens, Greece.
2014 School of Fine Arts, The Rule of Law and the Right to be Human, Athens, Greece. Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Ph.D., and Professor Bill Pangburn.
2014 Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, Recontextualizing the Found, Chelsea, New York.
2013 Camp/Pindaros, Save, Athens, Greece.
2013 Art Athina, Indoors plus, The National Garden, Athens, Greece.
2013 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Indoors plus, The National Garden, Athens, Greece.
2012 About gallery, “The distant relative of a blind man”, Athens, Greece, group show.
2011 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “Permanent Collection 1,” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2010 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “Man and Machine,” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2010 Black & White Gallery, “Refused Reused” New York, solo show.
2010 Black & White Gallery, Pulse Art Fair, New York.
2009 Black & White Gallery, Chelsea, New York, “black & white world,” group show.
2009 Cultural Center “Melina” Athens, Greece, “recycling instructions,” group show.
2009 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “The Mediterranean Olive grove” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2008 Tsatsis Projects Artforum, Thessaloniki, solo show.
2006 Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, solo show.
1998 Huntington Gallery, Austin, Texas, group show.
1996 Technopolis Gazi, Athens, Greece, “Gazi Δ7”, group show.
1995 KETE, Research Center for the Arts & Science, Athens, Greece, group show.
COLLABORATIONS
2010 Member of Indoors Plus consisting of the old members of Indoors M. Kassi, V. Nomidou, M. Christea, S. Polliti together with A. Kavvatha, K. Stamatiou, E. Argyries.
2013 The National Garden, Indoors Plus, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.
2013 The National Garden, Indoors Plus, at Platforms Projects, Art Athina, Athens, Greece.
HONORS & AWARDS
1998 Carolyn Kay “Katie” Centennial Memorial Scholarship.
1998 Eugenie Kamrath Mygdal Scholarship.
1998 University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts, Dean’s travel scholarship.
1997 Angeline M. Umlauf Scholarship.
EDUCATION
1979 – 1980 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California.
1980 – 1982 Ohlone College, Fremont, California, Associate degree in fine arts.
1996 – 1998 University of Texas at Austin, studies in video, sculpture and art history.
2001 School of Visual Arts, New York, studies in media.
Fear and anxiety are provoked by the data we receive from world events. In the current, digital zeitgeist, data is intensified, compelling the viewer to reduce such vivid overload from three dimensions to two, thereby minimizing engagement. As an artist, however, I am not content with flat encounters, and it is for this reason that I have sought to relieve the psychic pressure by transposing such information back into the world of space.
Installation and construction became the obvious media of choice. In 2003, in interpreting my own lingering anxieties about 9/11, I began work on a walk-in space that resumes a vital discussion on public safety left off decades ago: The result was Airbox (2003 – 2006, 240×300x244 cm, 96×120x96 inches), a stylized fallout shelter built of polypropylene, paper, styrofoam, and clear vinyl. Airbox represents a fully non-functional solution to our most dysfunctional issues. The piece required three years to complete and was created specifically to allow for translucence. Light gently filters through it, blurring the division between safety and hazard, the irony rendered, the disconnect made.
Ideas for other work in three dimensions quickly followed. In 2008, MoMA’s Design and the Elastic Mind asserted that contemporary human thought requires new tools to process the rapid changes transforming our society. In this vein, I had already begun the Charts series (2006 – 2009). Given impetus by a graph printed in The New York Times illustrating imbalances in salaries/earnings/profits of multinational corporations during the financial crisis, I employed not only traditional color, shape, and line, but also plastic water bottles, drinking straws, electrical wires, plexiglas, plastic, staples, light—and even broken glass from the violent demonstrations in Athens at that time—to transform this and other data. The goal was a viewing experience that, like functional graphs and charts, eases the intake of information. Charts move the viewer toward interpretation, their multidimensionality creating a mental space in which to proceed. Further explorations for the series have included energy companies’ performances on the New York Stock Exchange, and the motion and symmetry of the earth’s natural elements.
Yet, as I moved through the umbrage of our current predicaments, light became an unlikely motif. I found it in intervening spaces, at the periphery, or subtly emanating from the center of my pieces, even when not intended. This reflection inspired two studies on luminance: Interstice (2011) and Nacreum (2011). These works manifest a move toward the translucent, beyond the former, heavier materials. Plexiglas, layers of diaphanous surfaces, and intervening space suggest a new place to be.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009 Black & White Gallery, Refused Reused, Chelsea, New York.
2008 Tsatsis Projects Artforum, Thessaloniki.
2006 Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, New York.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Art Appel Gallery, ‘Pinned, Stitched, and Glitzed’, Athens, Greece.
2017 Mykonos Biennale, “Antidote”, Delos Island, curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos.
2017 Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, “The Right to be Human” curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Harry Savvopoulos. Thessaloniki, Greece.
2016 Asian Art Works, 2016, Pinned, stitched and Glitzed, Beijing, China.
2015 Depo Darm, Timeffect, Athens, Greece.
2014 School of Fine Arts, The Rule of Law and the Right to be Human, Athens, Greece. Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Ph.D., and Professor Bill Pangburn.
2014 Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, Recontextualizing the Found, Chelsea, New York.
2013 Camp/Pindaros, Save, Athens, Greece.
2013 Art Athina, Indoors plus, The National Garden, Athens, Greece.
2013 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Indoors plus, The National Garden, Athens, Greece.
2012 About gallery, “The distant relative of a blind man”, Athens, Greece, group show.
2011 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “Permanent Collection 1,” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2010 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “Man and Machine,” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2010 Black & White Gallery, “Refused Reused” New York, solo show.
2010 Black & White Gallery, Pulse Art Fair, New York.
2009 Black & White Gallery, Chelsea, New York, “black & white world,” group show.
2009 Cultural Center “Melina” Athens, Greece, “recycling instructions,” group show.
2009 Contemporary Art Museum Olivepress, “The Mediterranean Olive grove” Chania, Crete, Greece, group show.
2008 Tsatsis Projects Artforum, Thessaloniki, solo show.
2006 Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, solo show.
1998 Huntington Gallery, Austin, Texas, group show.
1996 Technopolis Gazi, Athens, Greece, “Gazi Δ7”, group show.
1995 KETE, Research Center for the Arts & Science, Athens, Greece, group show.
COLLABORATIONS
2010 Member of Indoors Plus consisting of the old members of Indoors M. Kassi, V. Nomidou, M. Christea, S. Polliti together with A. Kavvatha, K. Stamatiou, E. Argyries.
2013 The National Garden, Indoors Plus, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.
2013 The National Garden, Indoors Plus, at Platforms Projects, Art Athina, Athens, Greece.
HONORS & AWARDS
1998 Carolyn Kay “Katie” Centennial Memorial Scholarship.
1998 Eugenie Kamrath Mygdal Scholarship.
1998 University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts, Dean’s travel scholarship.
1997 Angeline M. Umlauf Scholarship.
EDUCATION
1979 – 1980 San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California.
1980 – 1982 Ohlone College, Fremont, California, Associate degree in fine arts.
1996 – 1998 University of Texas at Austin, studies in video, sculpture and art history.
2001 School of Visual Arts, New York, studies in media.