ALEXANDRA ATHANASSIADES

Galerie Dutko is pleased to present an exhibition by Greek artist Alexandra Athanassiades from March 14th to April 20th, 2024. Bringing together a collection of major works spanning from the 1980s to her most recent creations, this will mark the artist's first solo exhibition at the gallery since 2012. This unique ensemble of sculptures will provide an opportunity to explore the artist's three central themes: Armor, Horse, and Torso.

Alexandra Athanassiades shapes initially resistant material until it bends to her will. Regarding her artistic process, Athanassiades evokes the image of a horse tamer: "There are two facets within me. One side that bows its head and accepts doing what is expected of me, and the other side that disobeys and does not bend to what is expected of me."

Drawing from the rich artistic heritage of her country, invoking influences from both ancient Greek antiquity and more recent artistic movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstraction, Alexandra Athanassiades nevertheless rejects the classical ideal of beauty and prefers the rough and imperfect surfaces of wood or bronze, thus creating a dialogue between past and present, tradition and innovation.

Athanassiades works with a wide variety of materials in her art, ranging from wood to paper, iron to bronze. She is also passionate about transforming elements weathered by time, such as driftwood, recycled paper, or rusted iron collected here and there. Each sculpture, each drawing carries an intense evocative power. The interplay of volumes, the relationships between emptiness and fullness, and the subtlety of the shadows created contribute to the great elegance of her works and invite us to reflect on the past, but also on the future.