ARTISTS Maria Letsiou and Despoina Pantazi join forces at FokiaNou Art Space, via their two-person exhibition Mapping the Void, at FokiaNou Art Space. The two artists explore the potential of the “blank slate”, or void, as the starting point in creating forms and gestures. They also address the tension between the aesthetics of popular culture vs. biomorphic images.
Maria Letsiou’s works on paper, ceramics and paintings allude to popular images that are in a state of transformation. Somewhere between biomorphic forms and popular imagery, the amorphous and the stylized, the organic and the geometric, her work presents a hybrid world. This hybrid world addresses themes of life such as time, play, spirituality, fear, and the dualism between humans and nature. Despoina Pantazis focuses on the void between spots of color that becomes the starting point of the investigation and the creation of new forms. The empty white spaces on the surface of the artwork are the catalyst for a transformation into illuminated figures. The energy of the void that ceases to be empty powers and gives direction to the artist’s creation of shapes, lines and forms, in drawings, paintings and mixed media work.
Maria Letsiou is a visual artist, researcher and educator. She has participated in two biennials, Luleå Art Biennial (LAB11), Sweden, 2011, and 9th Biennial of Young Artists in Europe, Rome, Italy, 1999. Her works have been presented in many solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. She teaches art education classes at the Department of Preschool Education of the Faculty of Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. https://www.maria-letsiou.com.
Despoina Pantazi-(Papadimitriou) was born in Korydallos in 1966. She studied at independent painting studios. She has had seven solo exhibitions in Athens and has taken part in many group exhibitions. She has also shown her work in Spain, Cyprus, Belgium, and the U.S., and her works are in many private and public collections. From 1994-2010 she curated the annual exhibition “Meeting of Visual Artists – Mediterranean” under the auspices of the Municipality of Korydallos. Since 2015, she has been collaborating with the Second Chance School of Korydallos Prisons, coordinating art workshops and curating exhibitions. She is a member of the Greek Chamber of Visual Arts. https://www.instagram.com/despoina.pantazi.3/
FokiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens. The space encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community. Since 2016, under the direction and curatorship of visual artists Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris, over 50 exhibitions have been held, as well as workshops and talks. www.fokianou247.gr
Mapping the Void opens on Thursday, 9 March, 18.00 – 21.00
Duration: 9 – 25 March 2023
Hours: Thursday – Saturday 17.00-20.00
FokiaNou Art Space, Fokianou 24, 7th Floor, Pagrati Metro: Evangelismos
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