Τhe Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, presents the group exhibition titled I Shall be Your Eve. The artists participating are Ermina Avramidou, Charoula Nikolaidou, Eliona Ntoukni and Christina Papaioannou.
Each artist, in her own way, assesses human existence. They all focus on the feminine side of things, unavoidably suggesting the male element too, and they ultimately pay homage to the imperfections that render each human being unique. The imperfections that were so deeply envied by the Gods: the mortals’ passions, concerns, simple ways, and complicated relationships.
In art, Eva is often portrayed as the evil victimizer rather than the victim, which results in a negative portrayal of women and sexuality. However, in the exhibition I shall be your Eve, through the work of the four artists, we choose to view Eva’s actions as the beginning of Man’s real journey into life and knowledge. The First Woman, represents the transition from the Superior Being (God) to the Human (existence). Each of the four artists searches, like a modern and femme fatale Eva that bit the forbidden fruit from the “tree of knowledge”, answers about love, time, the universe and the man’s place in it.
Εrmina Avramidou born in Thessaloniki now lives and works in London. She experiments particularly with light and is interested in its depiction. She wants her paintings to be sources of light, emitting their own rays. For her, the paintings reflect stages of her own journey, of which she was unaware when it was occurring. This is one of the greatest excitements in art, the capacity to make the invisible reveal itself and integrate it in our conscious existence. One can recognize that the landscapes depicted in her work and the way they are presented resemble mysterious landscapes of primitive origin.
Ermina Avramidou, Under Water 100m, Acrylic ink on acid-free paper
Charoula Nikolaidou lives and works in Thessaloniki. Her art is gestural and instinctual, driven by an axis that is both personal and experiential, the sense of perception playing a vital role. The sense of time immerses in her works, every line is a time cue. The relation between figures and the empty space is one of the opposites but also complementary at the same time. The paintings of Charoula Nikolaidou can be rendered existential fields of agony, where body and spirit, love and loneliness are meeting and at the same time fighting each other. The thirst for life, as well as the poetic role of art as a cathartic value, are emphatically highlighted, through the artist's powerful gestures on the canvas.
Charoula Nikolaidou, Existence, 130x130, Acrylics on canvas
Eliona Ntoukni lives and works in Athens. Through her works, she wishes to depict her spontaneity and her deep need for artistic expression. Her themes revolve mainly around her personal experiences expressing agonies, passions, fears and internal battles. Ntoukni’s work has an impact of joy and melancholy to the viewer while revealing her concern about human relationships.
Eliona Ntoukni, Ηate, 100x100, Acrylics on fabric
Christina Papaioannou born in Thessaloniki, lives and works in Crete. In her work, shapes and figures are deconstructed and reshaped into collage-like compositions. The artistic surface is transformed into a kind of atlas where every imprint can be read as a narration of its own, whilst at the same time is a piece of a bigger, complete structure. Through the deconstruction of form and the study of the fragmented body, a cosmic collage is born, a cosmic arrangement where the tragedy of human existence is found condensed with man’s incapacity to trace, to restore the initial and authentic reason for existence, to ultimately discover its hidden meaning.
