“Shifting Spaces”: Rea Stavropoulos & Iliana Theodoropoulou

FokiaNou Art Space is pleased to present a collaborative art exhibition between two artists, Rea Stavropoulos and Iliana Theodoropoulou.

Rea Stavropoulos is an “Athenian Florentine Londoner” in an age when the notion of nations, boundaries and allegiances shifts and becomes increasingly uncertain. The installation “Shifting Spaces” and related events is a dialogue with the city of her birth. Her “Secret Gardens” project  has travelled across Europe since 2001, developing with each new space. It relates to the search for a personal space in the heart of a city and a place in the world, and to spatial relationships, constantly shifting physically, psychologically and metaphorically. The installation will be like the artist’s studio, a process of shifting spaces challenging us to “re-envision” the world, looking within and without.

Iliana Theodoropoulou‘s work, which began in 2005, also takes part in the dialogue, exploring spatial phenomena such as surfaces, rocks, walls and especially sidewalks or pavements, while observing the linear elements they create. This linearity is felt both as experience and inspiration, resulting in small abstract works that are grouped together and set in a grid. A second, more recent series of folded works which began in 2017 refer to autobiographical routes within Athens and focus more on decay, memory and absence. These pieces open and unfold, revealing an ephemeral moment that is the product of recording and editing.

Rea Stavropoulos is a British artist of Greek origin who works internationally. Currently based in London and Brighton, she continues to collaborate with arts organisations in Florence where she had a studio for 16 years. She studied Art in London (St Martin’s School of Art), Paris (Beaux Arts) and Florence and has exhibited her paintings, artists books and three dimensional works in private and public spaces all over Europe and in  Brazil since 1976. Her practise involves collaborative projects, installations, teaching, lecturing, writing, curating, advocacy and campaigning for women artists. Her work is in private and public collections all over the world. www.reastavropoulos.com

Iliana Theodoropoulou is a visual artist from Athens, Greece. She has studied Surveying Engineering in Athens and Photogrammetry in London. She spent several years doing research and working in Berlin. Since her return to Greece, she has been exclusively working as a visual artist. Her main field is painting, where her work inhabits the border between abstraction and landscape painting, but she also explores the possibilities of photography and film. She has had two solo exhibitions and participated in several group shows. www.ilianatheodoropoulou.com

FoKiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens.  The apartment has been transformed into an open space that encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community.  The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris.

Hours:  Thursday to Saturday, 17:00-20:00