ATHENS OPEN ART 1 S T
O C T O B E R
GALLERY
SNEHTA
NODNOL EXHIBITIONS
INDEX
1. IOSUNE DE GOÑI GARCÍA 2. MANOS PATERAKIS 3. ELLEN MAR 4. MARGARITA KOULOURI 5. MARKELA IACOVOU 6. DIMITRA SIGALA 7. NINA CHASAPI 8. POLYXENI VAKOU 9. RICARDO III TORRENO 10. EDWIN CANO 11. ANNA LAZAREVA
IOSUNE DE GOÑI GARCÍA IG: @iosunedegoni
Iosune de Goñi (1993) is a Basque writer and analogue photographer. Graduated in Philosophy, she then completed a Master in Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Thought. Her photographs have been published in several websites and magazines, such as Lomography, Alter/Analog, Fuzz Magazine and Polysème and some book and album covers. She has held exhibitions in various galleries and cultural centers and is the coauthor of the multidisciplinary zine Trenza roja (2020). Her work is characterized by the use of experimental techniques such as multiple exposure and film soup. She loves cold colours, expired films and wandering through the woods.
MANOS PATERAKIS IG: @manospaterakis_
I have sudied interior design with a Master of Arts in Design. My journey in arts started in 2012 with paintings and in 2013 with,mostly,wooden artifacts from recycled materials. In 2020 i wanted to do something different and to create decorative sculptures with the symbol of skull. The collection i did took the title “Anagenesis”. Already literally, the symbol gives the cycle of life. Birth, death and allegorical significance. Unburdened in the modern world, it becomes a more "attractive" image from the field of fashion, decoration, advertising and pop culture. In my journey so far, through this collection I wanted to capture symbolisms such as freedom, beauty, purity, trust and even self-destruction. So, i present to you 4 of them.
ELLEN MAR IG: @ellenmar_ -(threewisemen) contradicts the ancient Japanese myth of three wise monkeys - Mizaru, who sees no evil, covering its eyes, Iwazaru, who speaks no evil, covering its mouth and Kikazaru, who hears no evil, covering its ears. The mathematic characters escorting the title symbolise the artwork’s opposition to the myth. As an artist, most of my artworks and paintings are inspired by ancient myths and legends, mythical creatures and species, and these ones are no exception.
MARGARITA KOULOURI IG: @agrowingdaisy , @seewhattheydont
Margarita Koulouri is an Architecture student and artist based in Athens, Greece. From a young age, she has been continuously exploring various art fields. Taking film pictures has helped her to get closer to the imaginary world in her head, finding beads and pieces of it in the real world. Her landscape observations combined with the feeling of Melancholy, create stories behind each photograph. After shooting, she composes digital collages by finding (line) relations between her photographs. She has exhibited her works at Reform in Atelier-Ατελιέ (Patras, Greece 2019) and she has been published in Photo Vogue Italia (2021). In Athens Open Art (2021), she is showcasing four of her digital collages.
MARKELA IACOVOU IG: @markela_iacovou.art Markela Iacovou was born in 1999 in Paphos, Cyprus. She is currently living and studying in Thessaloniki, Greece. From the age of 16 she participated in various workshops all over Cyprus. The artworks are in the form of a diptych and are edited both digitally and manually. The picture on the left is only edited slightly, by using visual programs such as photoshop and illustrator, while the right one receives a supplementary amount of modification. After they are printed on canvas, a manual intervene is made with sewing on the left photo and using body parts in order to create repetition on the right photo. While creating these artworks, my mind is filled with questions. The photos are a boundary between life and death. After the completion of the artwork, it reaches the point of becoming an imprint, and it becomes fragments of air. It is my body between being alive and a ghost, a body in the border of existing. I am intrigued by memories and our own death, as my mind is filled with questions while creating these artworks. Where do our memories go after our death? What are we without our memories or body? Our memories are the shadows of every person, just like death is a necessary and irreversible ending. I am concerned about these questions and through my work I try to answer them.
DIMITRA SIGALA IG: @cortical.color A simple change such as the presence or absence of color has a significant effect on our psychology. Reality as we know it, does not correspond with the observation of a black and white image, because reality is full of color. Although, contrary to our beliefs, photography is not a representation of reality itself in the first place. Photography pictures perception. Therefore, there is a differentiation between a chromatic and a black and white photograph and the way we perceive it. Everyday we choose to “see” the world through different types of lenses and sometimes we find ourselves lost into the noisy, fast and anxiety inducing way of living. Wouldn't life be better if we stopped for a while and payed attention to the bigger picture rather than the details? Born in Athens, Greece, Dimitra Sigala studied Psychology at University of Crete and that’s when she started researching the complexity of human nature. Trying to understand and explore more of it she began photographing life on the streets, mostly in black and white. Through black and white photography, she tries to communicate more general, timeless messages drawing the viewer’s attention to a deeper meaning embracing the essence of a scene, place, or person.
NINA CHASAPI IG: @n1na_photography Nina Chasapi was born in 1989 and raised in Nafplio Greece. Although her studies were in Political Science and accounting, throughout her life she followed her father's footsteps and explored her artistic tendencies focusing on photography. Her personal style is heavily influenced by her time in London and specifically the exploration of human physicality and characteristics. She follows a conceptual and theatrical approach to her projects with a prevalent representation of humans in her work. She presented her first solo exhibition titled 'Detached' in Cyrpus in 2018 which explored the feeling of loneliness and social isolation through depictions of buildings and people. In 2020 she received an award in the Pancyprian Competition organized by Stressball, in the category of Black and White photography.
POLYXENI VAKOU IG: @polyxenicollage My name is Polyxeni Vakou. Eighteen years ago, I started experimenting with collage. Since then I have not stopped making artworks. Usually from magazines and sometimes from cardboard boxes. During these years I developed my own, original technique. Collage for me is a need for expression and creation, as strong as the thirst for water. Each of my works is unique and a creation of my imagination. In addition, I have written and illustrated using the technique of collage children's books. My works have been exhibited in various galleries in Athens, such as Skoufa Gallery, Antonopoulou Gallery, as well as in the shop of the Benaki Museum in Piraeus.
RICARDO III TORRENO IG: @r3.psd The images featured are archived photographs documenting the journey of upcoming multi-disciplinary artist Ricardo III Torreno, also known as R3.
EDWIN CANO IG: @canogram Shapes is a photography project by Neko Teatro, a Spanish theatre and photography company, and the Colombian fashion photographer Edwin Cano, based in Madrid. Shapes uses the human anatomy as the main element to create new forms by adapting its morphology to the classic sculpture. The human body has always been a subject of study through history and an endless source of inspiration, as it has been for our project. The real secret of beauty lies on contemplating its perfect imperfections that makes the human body unique and inimitable.
ANNA LAZAREVA IG: @laza_anna Anna Laza is an influential visual artist working in Art and Fashion photography. Her projects are focused on finding new innovative style both shooting and post processing. Her work has been rewarded and been exhibited internationally in many countries around the world, she has won in a number of famous photo contests, including MonoVisions and Minimalist Awards. She is often published in photography magazines and regularly appears on prestigious jury lists for photographic events. Beside her own photography she is also a creator of photo magazine FotoSlovo, which promotes every year new emerging talents in photography from Russia & CIS counties. She lives and works mostly between Moscow and Paris.
ATHENS OPEN ART 1st October