STEREO

Curator: Areti Leopoulou (Art Historian-Curator)

Artists: Lia Psoma (Visual Artist), Virginia Mastrogiannaki (visual artist), Eleni Stergiou (photographer) Angeliki Trokana (graphic designer) and Harry Martis (3-D animator)

 Solid (στερεό in Greek) is one of the four fundamental states of matter. It is characterized by structural rigidity and resistance to changes of shape or volume.

Could one argue that there is something undeniably solid? Would one prefer everything in life absolutely fixed and unchanged? Yet, in times of uncertainty, one of the main human needs is to identify those aspects of life remaining solid. An impression, a feeling, even a semblance of stability, the need for a structure or a value that succeeds to actually remain unchanged, when everything is altering.

This human need was also the occasion of the “στερεο” (“solid”) exhibition. The search for such structures, the approach of such a concept, whether in nature, in the human body or emotions -concrete or abstract. Featured attempts yield solid images and ideas. The works are versions of a fixity that sometimes is contested and sometimes is treated as a certainty -just like what happens with every aspect of life.

For all the above reasons, this exhibition was structured on a similar creative idea. Those who participate come from different creative fields. Five artists, everyone of different professional backgrounds and mediums, with different origins and interests, all approaching the concept on their own way. Allegorically, symbolically, scientifically, emotionally or mathematically. Their interpretation, in retrospect, is left to our visual and conceptual perception and judgment. For what may ultimately be solid. And the result is hopefully to be-if anything else-solid aesthetically.

The solidity of human emotions and sentimental situations is the issue that primarily concerns Lia Psoma (visual artist). Through paintings and sculptures she approaches the relevance they may (or may not) have human situations, aspirations and hopes. Virginia Mastrogiannaki (visual artist) deals with the certainties of apparently solid materials (like a wall surface, paper, etc.), destroying them in a controlled way and giving them a perforated substance. Eleni Stergiou (photographer) captures solid fields with her camera, choosing to be committed to the ground, the earth and what this may symbolize for the circle of life. Angeliki Trokana (graphic designer) directs scenes of people managing solid objects, concepts and iconographic symbols of solidity through the use of digital collage. Harry Martis (3-D animator) constructs compact, otherworldly 3-dimensional environments (fractals), which, although they derive from concrete mathematical formulas, their synthesis is carried out uncontrollably.
Altogether in this exhibition they succeed to compose somehow one of the most solid approaches of reality; the one confirming that nothing remains the same forever.

Areti Leopoulou
art historian-curator

Eleni Stergiou

Eleni Stergiou was born in 1980. She studied Photography at the Cultural IEK of Thessaloniki. She lives and works in Thessaloniki.
Selected group exhibitions – participations: «Submit pictures», 7th Berlin Biennale of Contemporary Art (2012), Germany | “Nothing is wasted”, Parallaxi-Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (2010) | 14th Biennale of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Skopje (2009) | “I Create, therefore I Am”, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (2009)

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Aggeliki Trokana
Aggeliκi Trokana was born in 1980 and studied graphic design. She lives and works in Thessaloniki as a graphic designer since 2001, while started to also work on photography. She ofter intervenes on her photographs to create collages. Participation in a group exhibition analog photography, Stereosis (2011)

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Harry Martis
Harry Martis was born in 1969. He studied at the University of Leeds (PhD in Media & Communication Studies) and the University of Westminster (Audio Production / Hypermedia). He’s specialized in 3D / motion graphics / sound design / post production and he is a founding member of Les Yper Yper. He has worked with many creative agencies and production companies in Greece and internationally, including: StateDesign (UK) | Digital Arts (UK) | AntiROM/Tomato Interactive (UK) | MUTE records (UK) | Beetroot (Greece) | AlterVision (Greece) | Group94 (Belgium) | NoMint (Greece), etc.

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Virginia Mastrogiannaki
Virginia Mastrogiannaki was born in 1979. She studied at the School of Fine Arts (MA) in the Faculty of Fine Arts of Thessaloniki (BA), the Ecole des Beaux Arts de in Rouen (DNSEP) and the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Saint-Etienne (DNAP). Selected group exhibitions – participations: “ROOMS 2012″, Saint George Lycabettus – Kappatos Gallery Athens (2012) | “Parcours de l’art”, Avignon, France (2011) | ANAKATA (2010) | “Greatest Kitsch 2009”, Parallaxi-Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (2009) | Workshop sculpture” Imbahim Caldi “, Pammukale, Turkey (2003) | 6th International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers film and video, Thessaloniki 2004 [Distinction] | “Paris-Berlin “, Rencontres Internationales – Immanence Gallery, Paris, France-Podewill Contemporary Arts Centre, Berlin, Germany (2002)

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Lia Psoma
Lia Psoma was born in 1979. She studied at the Hochschulefur Vildenten Kunst in Hamburg, Germany (MA) and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de St.Etienne, France (DNSEP). She lives and works in Thessaloniki. Selected group exhibitions: “Happiness”, Margaris Foundation & Les Yper Yper at Kulturhuset Stockholm Supermarket Arts, Stockholm, Sweden (2013) | 2nd International Festival of Moving Image (IMF), European University Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus (2013) | “Rooms 2009”, Saint George Lycabettus – Kappatos Gallery, Athens (2009) | “The Beautiful is just the first degree of the Terrible”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 2009 | “Collage. Cut-Paste”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2008)