Born in Thessaloniki in 1977

EDUCATION

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

The starting point in my work are my perceptions, preferences, objections and obsessions in my everyday life which are formed partly from my personal- first hand experiences- and on the other, from my realisations through books, magazines, TV and other means of mediated and indirect information. The core point in my work is the experiences and the issues that stimulate me. I am interested in the variety through which both genders express their identity, performing masculinity, sexism, flirtation, sensitivity, fragility, allure, perfection, trying to communicate and thrive. I make images that operate as fragmented narrations with recurring characters and forms. These elements become metaphorical figures of my interests and lead me to an interesting process of a playful display of my ideas. Through this process I compare them with humour in order to show their absurdity or even their inevitable relativism. During this comparison, I often alternate my working attitude, balancing teenage impulsiveness with critical concealing. This attempt is for me a confessional state through which I enjoy sharing my ideas and thoughts as well as accepting and compromising with my frustrations.

Drawing

The Catalyst for the Unfamiliar

In these drawings my trigger point is the sexual attitude, from the view of men’s performance, who practising it against women or other, weaker men. I comment on masculinity, considering it a crude and archetypical behaviour that becomes a power/identity model strongly connected with animal instincts. I contradict this aspect by comparing it with non-masculinity/female nature. I also combine elements of masochism, being sarcastic, in order to disturb the soberness and the weight of these perceptions. I realise that humour interests me a lot, because it acts as a catalyst for understanding and approaching the unfamiliar. By the term unfamiliar I refer to some common facts about our nature and personality that are unrealised or pushed back into the unconscious because they are irritating, unpleasant or difficult to deal with.

Painting

The Lonely Portraits of the Ancient Origin

“It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute. That is not so ridiculous when we take into account the unusual size of Tanuki’s scrotum. Well, okay, it’s still pretty ridiculous-and no less so just be-cause in relation to his overall body mass, Tanuki’s scrotum is proportionately larger than the scrota of elephants, whales and the Jolly Green Giant……..Yet having said all that, we must concede that the role of anatomical size per se in Tanuki’s descent is not easy to determine and a more pertinent question might be not how the badger managed to use his significant seed sack to parachute to earth but, rather: Where did he parachute from? And why?”  T.Robbins

My paintings are portraits of humanized animal figures. They are derived from folklore traditions. I make them because I am interested in the various motifs that primitive and ancient cultures used to depict thoughts and beliefs about humanity’s past and origin. Through them I question issues of identity and masquerade, contradicting the human nature and primeval urges with public indecency and religion. I paint these themes as portraits to signify the urgency of contact itself, and to insinuate that these are self-questions,- sooner or later inevitably to be faced-, trying to create a mood that lies between merriness and peaceful insult. The style is imitating classic, to communicate the timeless character of these arguments and to undermine with humour the acceptance and credit that classical images-advertisements usually receive from public.