"ContrA-dictions". Painting exhibition at the Bissell Library by Margarita Lypiridou and Emmy Kotoula
The Bissell Library at ACT is hosting the painting exhibition "ContrA-dictions" by visual artists and Anatolia alumnae Margarita Lypiridou '86 and Emmy Kotoula '83. The exhibition's official opening will be held on Thursday, April 6, at 20:00. The exhibition will be open to the public until June 16, 2023.
Margarita Lypiridou '86 is a visual artist, painter, and printmaker. She studied painting, photography, and applied arts in her native Greece and England before moving to Montreal in 2002. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Print Media and a Master's in Fine Arts in Studio Arts from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. After living almost twenty years in Montreal, in the summer of 2021, Lypiridou returned to her hometown, Thessaloniki, to set up her art practice there. Her studio is now in the heart of the Mediterranean city, and her painting is infused with its surrounding vistas, smells, and sounds. Since 1995 she has participated in solo and group exhibitions, and her work is part of collections in Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East.
About her work
In this work, Lypiridou mainly presents her figures, which dominate the canvas. These figures seem like iterations of the same person. The closer we look, however, the more this initial resemblance conceals complicated forces at work. With no facial expressions to read, the body language and placement of the figures are brought vividly to the fore. The variety of the brushstrokes suggests the forces that sweep human beings together or drive them apart. The fluid drips, the flurry of scratches, and a sweeping, almost transparent veneer of white that suffuses many of these canvases with a movement we can feel more than see. Whether she presents her figures or her semi-abstract landscapes, her work explores sites of wander and wonder, the locus of gathering and exchange, and is the result of the desire for the search for rhythm in the silence and fluidity of life. It is driven by the need to articulate a presence and denote humans' transient nature while accentuating the ephemerality and volatility of being. The artist works with layers upon layers of acrylic, oil, and mixed media, scraping and re-applying color multiple times, constantly revealing and concealing different parts of the painting in an attempt to create visual and spatial relationships among the various elements, and to render visible the tentative, the fluid, the ephemeral.
www.margaritalypiridou.com, Instagram: @margaritalypiridou, https://facebook.com/MargaritaLypiridou
Emmy Kotoula '83 was born in Thessaloniki, where she lives and works as a surgeon dentist. While studying at the Dental School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, she decided to pursue her love for art. She started attending painting and sculpture classes in ateliers and art studios. Later her need for communicating through visual expression led her to attend the School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. During the same period, she apprenticed to two renowned visual artists- painters in Thessaloniki, deepening the aniconic art. She has crafted book covers; many of her works are in private collections.
About her work
Her artistic work is mainly influenced by abstract expressionists and writers such as Kazantzakis (the void of the abyss through which he thrives). Her approach to art is anthropocentric, psychographic, and ontological. It is the essence of man's existential concerns. Hence the titles of her collections are an abyss, endo, burning, etc. Her artworks are subject to the charm of archetypical natural materials (stones, sand, wood, seaweed, shells, etc.). These materials are glued and painted on the canvas with acrylics and eventually burned with a blowtorch. Her painting is spontaneous, intuitive, and partly gestured. Her canvas, through the stratification of materials, acquires intense materiality. The artist believes in art's catalytic and redeeming effect on the human soul. Therefore, her work aspires to boost the despair of loss to the hope of rebirth, optimistically valuing the cycle of life.
- Bissell Library: Sevenidi 17, Pylaia
- Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday: 9:30 – 20:00, Friday 9:30 a.m. – 18:00
