Art Trail
“Step into the world of art with a coffee in hand through bustling Moreland, the cultural metropolis of Melbourne. For two weeks only, the Greek Australian Cultural League will be exhibiting the work of eight unique artists on 2.3 x 1.7 m posters on various locations in Brunswick, as part of an easily accessible Art Trail. Designed to encourage new discoveries and an appreciation for colour, space and line. The Art Trail takes no more than 60 minutes to cover by foot (although lingering is actively encouraged). It will include the work of respected artists from around Australia. Mediums include digital, photography, oils and acrylics”. -Maria Foroudi
There is no theme to this year’s Antipodean Palette however the exhibition is showcasing artists from the Greek Australian Artists Directory (GAAD), an important archive of Greek Australian art practice in Australia.
The work is presented in the heart of Brunswick, amidst shops, cafes and galleries.
The eight works are printed on large posters and within walking distance of one another. They are situated on the corners of :
Glenlyon and Sydney Rds
Victoria St and Sydney Rd
Boase and Victoria Sts
William St and Sydney Rd
For a PDF copy of the map – please click here.
The exhibition runs from 30 May to 12 June 2022.
‘Antipodean Palette’ 2022 Artists
Efrossini ChaniotisThe subject of this painting is a series of sculptures titled THE LITTLE MYKONOS PROJECT. It is a graphic interpretation of the Cycladic art inspired figures I created as a ceremonial goodbye to my LITTLE MYKONOS STUDIO at the West Brunswick workshop. Honoring the many projects, connections and my creative life there felt paramount as I packed the last items in preparation for moving on to new adventures in other regions of Melbourne. The studio was filled with energy and happenings very close to my heart. The day I received the keys to move in marked the final days of life for my mother. I flew to be with her leaving the studio dull of packing boxes. In the lead up to moving in I suggested to my mum that I name the studio Little Corfu in her honor but she insisted that it resembled Mykonos more and to baptize it with the name of my father’s island. He had passed away 5 years earlier. I cut out carboard shapes with the characteristic motifs of the pigeon houses adorning the roofs of traditional Mykonos houses. I painted them white to resemble marble and fastened them to the window grid of the studio window, another curious element that reminded me of the Cycladic islands. In the last year of mum’s life, she had taken passionately to painting and I mentored her over the phone, (she was in Adelaide) and in person on my monthly visits. On her final days she asked me to take the 2 paintings she had left unfinished and complete them for her. They were the first things I painted in my new studio, carrying them and a heavy heart back to Melbourne. My parents always supported my decision to become an artist. They were proud of me. I forged my own path. The last day of vacating the space I removed the small cardboard cutouts to keep them as souvenirs. Moments later walking up my drive way with my arms full I had a vision of making sculptures of small figures, inspired by the bronze age marble figures found in ancient grave sites around the islands of the Aegean Sea, holding the cutouts. This was to be my way of expressing my gratitude to my parents, the studio that took on a presence of its own and nurtured my work for 5 years and finally to a creative vision that I know all too well to follow through on. This painting captures my artistic exploration of these revered ancient relics and a creative journey to pay my respects to a special Brunswick adventure.
Katrina GinisMy name is Katrina Ginis, and I am visual artist of Greek descent currently residing in Melbourne. My maternal heritage is Peloponnesian, and my paternal family are from Mytilene but originally from Asia Minor. Painting, drawing and the visual arts in their many and varied manifestations have been a source of fascination and an integral part of my identity for as long as I can remember. My personal aesthetic is predominantly figurative and representational, and my practice largely centres around painting and drawing. I work in media including oil, acrylic, watercolour, pencil, and pastel. I regard my creative practice as a means of self-expression which enables me to engage with and explore the beauty and complexity of existence. My creative work is informed by my cultural heritage and my research as a scholar of Psychology. I find great inspiration in Greek art, iconography, history, philosophy, literature, and mythology.
MasonikThe Title of our work is Bloom: Bloom – the beauty and devastation brought on by introducing a single new element to a closed system. Rapid and excessive growth upsets the established order, creating impact at scale and generating iterative re-adjustment. In this work, Masonik explores the de-stabilising impact of unchecked growth whether it is cultural change, landscape, or structure. At times slow and creeping, subtle and cyclic, or abrupt and chaotic, Bloom is a simple appreciation for pattern, devoid of judgement beyond the aesthetic for the far reaching changes on ‘systems out of balance’. Masonik’s latest work is an exploration of what happens when you allow one element to bloom.
Joy McDonaldMy work evolves using layers of line and colour. Impressions form from different elements of nature and are translated through the composition of smaller units to build complex layers creating movement through repetition and patterns. My images, paintings, prints — manual and digital — are abstracted representations of what I see in the everyday natural world around me — impressions, reflections, and configurations, a deconstruction of what is represented when I look at the natural world. The work TAPESTRY is the capture of water movement brought still into a tapestry of colours reflected by sunlight. Painted in April 2022
Constantine NicholasConstantine Nicholas (HatziYiannakis) was born in Perth, Western Australia and currently lives in Sydney. He is a 3rd generation Greek Australian. His ancestry is from the isle of Kastellorizo where his grandparents and many others migrated in the early 1900s escaping foreign occupations, and seeking a new life in Australia. Most landed in Fremantle, and other parts of Australia and stayed. Nicholas has always questioned his identity which has been an ongoing theme in his work. He creates rich and layered works, installations and digital projects. His work offers fragments, of text and imagery, citing colonial, aboriginal and commercial references which the artist uses to question his Australian identity. ‘An ongoing theme in my work is to use historical journals (other’s truth), maps and illustrations to present a ‘point of view’.
His new line of work since 2020, harkens back to his very early works, are more abstract and less referential in nature. ART LINES explores space, digital photography and drawing to create rich coloured abstract line-scapes. Visit https://lynkfire.com/Artcons9
Nicholas has participated in more than 70 exhibitions in ANZ, APAC and USA.
Represented in Public and Private Collections in AUS, NZ, APAC, US, EMEA.
James PasakosThis work considers the fleeting nature of thought. The philosopher contemplates an abstract ideal, the form and structure is discovered through introspection, a fundamental geometry which exists only in the mind. The discovery is simultaneously an emerging idea and a mutation, constantly subject to transformation, as thought cannot be static. Multiple concepts captured in a single moment, as all thought exists in a dream-scape flow of time. Hoping to conquer the transience of thought, the philosopher might consider permanence, although that thought is also fleeting. And so we turn to “Representation” for a fix, even understanding that any manifestation is subject to time and change. Witness the weathering of street art. The same problem is captured by the medium of photography, a transformation of light into image, here represented in all its forms. Traditionally used to capture a moment in time, a ‘fact’, here it is layered, manipulated, the meaning partly hidden and partly transformed, duplicated and obscured. The work itself is a demonstration of transformation, recursive through the nature of representation: while form and structure can be captured in a snapshot, the idea they manifest is always changing. Even facts are, in the long term, impermanent. Imagine what might happen to an idea in art?
Kalliroe TsiatisThrough the mind boggling of definitions, categories, manifestos to describe the world , I dusted my shoulders to simply connect, to deliciously give homage to a grand pleasantly informal day of a Coburgian giveandtaker. In the paradise of the green lake, odd photos of glamour would capture promises of eternal love and beauty. The fanfare ended, she sat on a fence, took her stilettos off to touch ground, for what it was really expected.
Yanis“Creativity is an expression of emotions released to help process moments of uncertainty, fear and joy.” I look past the obvious, I decontextualise and engage with my personal truths, which inspires my inner feelings to create and capture images beyond the distractions of normality. I inspire each individual’s thought process to interpret my art in their own highly personal and unique way, and to look carefully at the world around them, to discover ethereal beauty within their own personal environment and assess the different kinetic forms that are created by nature. I explore shape, colour, form, function and composition to determine an emotional feeling in an abstract contemporary style that creates freedom from reality and reflects an originality with an inconsistent and unpredictable power of perception This enables me to question, the tension between attitudes, emotions and fears which have evolved over time and inspired our surrounding environment and our behaviour within.
