Christella Demetriou

“In memory of Christella, whose work had a profound effect on the cultural life of the Greek Community of Melbourne, with the request that the following excerpt and images about the life and work of Christella Demetriou be used for inclusion in the Greek Australian Art Directory (GAAD).”

Media Press Release

Run and Fly, Monster Tooth!*
A posthumous exhibition of paintings by artist Christella Demetriou

1st – 30th May 2019
Darebin Arts Centre, cnr Bell St & St Georges Rd, Preston, Vic. 3072

A posthumous exhibition by Christella Demetriou, Run and Fly, Monster Tooth!, will premiere at the Darebin Arts Centre on Wednesday, 1st May. The retrospective will feature a selection of works spanning Demetriou’s career as well as artefacts celebrating her diverse and multi-layered creative life.
Esther Anatolitis, Executive Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, will open the exhibition. Commissioner, Rosaria Zarro will represent the Victorian Multicultural Commission. Artist & curator, chair of arts Mildura board, founder of museum of innocence Mildura, Domenico De Clario, & poet Andrea Demetriou (The Inconsolable Clock) will speak about her work.

Christella Demetriou was an artistic polyglot. She not only excelled as a painter, but was also a composer, a classic instrumentalist of the bouzouki, an unknown poet and an athlete. A refugee from what is now occupied Cyprus, Christella and her family migrated to Australia in 1976. She exhibited widely and performed in both Australia and Greece.

As a painter Christella was an artistic cryptographer, she used abstraction to hide within her paintings everything she could not endure, everything she could not face. She paints her feelings, her despair at the elusiveness and the falsification of love, her inability to reconcile her dreams with reality, her mother with her father, life with death, the invisible wound with the visible indifference. The deeply rooted pain of being uprooted, of not belonging, and finally her constant and chronic confrontation with cancer are indelible themes of her work.

According to curator Mitch Goodwin, “Christella’s paintings make for difficult, but soulful viewing. They are darkly euphoric explorations of the contrasting, often conflicting, modes of abstract expression. They endure because they explore a longing; a constant search.”

Christella rarely spoke directly in her paintings, however the directness of her poetry and the indirectness of her colours are communicating vessels. From her hospital bed, when she was stripped of all sense of ego, insecurity or fear she spoke her last words of love. Looking her sister straight in the eye, she said, “People are afraid to look at love directly, it’s overpowering. You are pure love, inside out, upside down, from all angles.” She also whispered to her, slowly and in anguish, “Life is a journey in the desert without relief… but you break the nightmare.”

Monster Tooth was Christella’s childhood nickname. A day after her death, artist and curator Elizabeth Gertsakis wrote to her friend, Run and fly, beautiful one!

Christella Demetriou passed away in 2018 at the age of 52.

Poetry Night (related event). On Monday the 13th of May at Ithaca house, Level 2, 329 Elizabeth St., Melbourne, at 7 p.m., academic Nick Trakakis will present his translation of major contemporary Greek poet Tassos Livaditis, whose poems have been set to music by Mikis Theodorakis; Some of the most polemic poems of Vassos Lyssarides, legendary leader and honorary president of the Socialist Party of Cyprus , will be read as a tribute on his 99th birthday; Edward Caruso will speak about his new poetry collection Blue Milonga which travels across the natural and political landscape of Argentina and Chile; Garry Foley will present Andrea Demetriou’s poetry book, The Inconsolable Clock, which expands from the wars for resources to the existential dead end, and is introduced by Christos Tsiolkas; finally poems by Christella Demetriou, translated by her friend Pavlos Andronikos, will be read.

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Efrossini Chaniotis

I am a Sculptor and Painter with a passion for story telling through art with a focus on themes that are inspired by my Hellenic heritage and modern art.

I have expertise in Painting, Sculpture, Street Art and Murals, Installation, Performance Art and Graphic Design. My training in Art Therapy and role as a co-founder of the Melbourne Art Therapy Studio, provided me with additional skills in the therapeutic application of the visual arts in both clinical and private, individual and group settings.

Bachelor Degree in Visual Arts /South Australian School of Art, Australia
Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts/ Athens School of Fine Arts, Greece
Erasmus Scholarship/Madrid School of Fine Arts, Spain
Master of Art Therapy/ La Trobe University, Melbourne

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Jenny Dumont

Jenny Dumont has travelled to many countries over the years to paint and view the work of past and present masters. She worked as an artist and teacher during her time living in Greece, Canada and since 2008 in her Bayside art studio in Melbourne Australia. Originally trained in Graphic Design but greatly inspired by the Surrealist movement with artists such as Dali, Man Ray and Duchamp. She went on to blend and create works that explore several different mediums and styles from modern acrylics and traditional oils to abstract inks and resins.

Her journey with resin as an art medium began in 2014 with works executed on custom made round boards and canvas. Inspiration came mainly from nature especially flowers, the beautiful local Bayside beaches, and the landscape of this earth in general. She mixes inks, pigments and powders with clear resin which is then poured in layers to create a composition that is fluid, has depth and is rich in colour and visual texture.

Jenny’s artist journey reflects her love of Surrealist ideals of juxtaposing images, mediums and methods. These attributes are an influence on her style and belief that, ‘not all needs to be as we know it’. Whilst working with and teaching resin, she began experimenting with the creation of art through furniture. Leaning on her experience as a wood and metal craft teacher, her love of art and mixing mediums, Jenny sourced home furnishings with unique architecture and their potential for metamorphosis. Each piece is lovingly restored, reinvented, and adorned with a piece of resin art, one of a kind and unique to that piece.

Today, Jenny is a full-time artist, Secondary teacher and entrepreneur. She continues to work with mixed media, experimenting with the vast boundaries this medium has to offer. She stands by the belief that, ‘an artist should not be branded but be a conduit, a forever evolving fluid medium’. Private collections of her work are held in Greece, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom and Brazil.

Exhibitions:

  • 1999 Pylaia Art Gallery Greece
  • 2003 Matticks Farm Art Gallery Canada
  • 2004 Vancouver Island Food and Wine Festival
  • 2009 Canterbury Art Show Melbourne
  • 2010 Beaumaris Art Group2014 Art for Life
  • 2013-2021 Bluethumb Art Gallery
  • 2015 Antipodean Palette Steps Gallery Carlton
  • 2015 The Bayside Art Show
  • 2015 Mingara Art Gallery Phillip Island
  • 2015 Emerging Art Gallery Windsor
  • 2015-2016 Without Pier Gallery Bayside
  • 2017 Beaumaris Art & Craft Exhibition
  • 2015 November issue of Inside Out Magazine
  • Bachelor of Education in Art and Design, Melbourne University (1985-1989)
  • Secondary Art and Design teacher, Arts coordinator, State examiner and mentor for VCE art students (1990-1992)
  • Professional exhibiting artist and teacher (1993-current)
  • Co-founder of Steaming Ink Design Partnership (advertising, graphic design and photography)
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James Raftopoulos

James Raftopoulos is a Melbourne based Graphic Designer and Artist. Through abstract mark-making, rudimentary printing techniques and digital compositions and motion, James explores the fuzzier edges of what outlines the human experience. James has exhibited work in group shows across Melbourne, culminating in his first regional solo show ‘Alive/Opaque’ in 2018.

Project Links

Gertrude Street Projection Festival

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James Pasakos

Pasakos reflects scenes of the Melbourne Docklands. It holds many experiences for the artist from his childhood, cultural identity, and reflects a sense of home. These elements form the foundation for the artist. Most of his works to date are part of an ongoing personal journey to endeavour to understand belonging and identity. Deep connections are made between the two worlds of his Australian upbringing and Greek heritage. He often visits the Melbourne Docklands to collect his thoughts and to view the maritime landscape, to seek his own iconography, narrative, purpose and understanding of sense of place.

The Docklands is an historical area with much significance to the Australian contemporary landscape, which came into prominence during the Victorian Gold rush of the 1850s as a very busy Melbourne shipping hub. Portraying the Melbourne Docklands is to continue the narrative of travel and discovery. During his travels overseas, he has often considered the valuable migrant stories. His works reflect these powerful experiences as they act as reminders of the fragility of our sense of self in the world, and the way in which that sense of identity may develop and spawn new cultural identities that change or shape values of other cultural frameworks.
His methods are in Printmaking, Drawing and in Mixed Media. Works can be seen as surreal and atmospheric. They are often rich in colour and evoke a sense of mystery. They can be quite dark and with this brings a personal insight of the artist.
As a practicing artist, Pasakos has been involved in many collaborative projects, print exchanges and exhibitions that has allowed him to produce other thematic works that have enriched not only his own techniques and methods but his practice and narrative.
Pasakos grew up in Melbourne and now lives in Ballarat, a rural Victorian city. He studied Visual Arts at Monash University, Melbourne. He has a Bachelor of Visual Arts Degree, a Post Graduate Diploma in Printmaking, a Graduate Diploma in Teaching, a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education and a Master of Fine Art majoring in Printmaking & Drawing.

Since 1991 Pasakos has regularly exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and internationally. His works are represented in public, private and university collections. Pasakos is a Visual Arts Lecturer at Federation University Australia teaching into Printmaking, Drawing and Studio Practice.

Global conferences – Peered Review Papers admitted and accepted – exhibitions:

International Print Conference, IMPACT – International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking, Artists, Concepts and Techniques

Exhibitions

Projects

Prizes

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Katherine Chouliaras Lewis

An Australian Artist born in Melbourne and residing in Rosanna, Victoria. Katherine’s love for drawing and painting began at an early age along with her fascination for archaeology, science, flora, fauna and her inspiration is nature and colour. She enjoys experimenting with different art mediums, styles, surfaces and techniques and her years of experience in painting and drawing is seen in her artworks which vary in style from abstract, contemporary and traditional, in subject matter such as fauna and flora, portraits, landscapes, seascapes and free form abstracts, and mediums from acrylics, oils, pastels, watercolour, scratch board, pencil and mixed media.

Katherine was ‘Artist in Residence’ at the ‘Mungga Studio’, ‘Ivanhoe Library & Cultural Hub’ from April 11-18, 2021. During her successful residency, she painted, exhibited and conducted workshops for children and adults in ‘Pull String Art’ technique. Katherine has been exhibiting her artworks since 1992 at many art shows such as The Victorian Artists’ Society, Heidelberg Artists’ Society, Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, ‘Urban Crafter’ Brunswick St, Fitzroy and ‘Riot Art’ Northland Preston. Also at Argyle on the Park, Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Camberwell Rotary Show, Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar, Alphington Grammar, Loyola College, Parade College and Banyule Art ‘Winter Exhibition’ Austin Hospital, Heidelberg.

Her signature artworks are her abstracts/contemporary art. The contemporary artwork ‘Autumn Spirit’ was selected for nomination for the ‘Undine Autumn Landscape Award’ by the Victorian Artists’ Society in 2016. Katherine is a member of various Artists’ Societies: since 1995, the Victorian Artists’ Society and Banyule Pinpoint; since 2015, the Heidelberg Artists’ Society; Contemporary Artists’ Society; Victorian Pastel Artists’ Society; Wildlife Artists’ Society Australia and since 2021, the Diamond Valley Artists’ Society.

Her other passions are photography and travelling and she uses many of her photos for reference and inspiration. She accepts commissions and also works from photographs.

Artist in Residence at Banyule.vic.gov.au
Banyule Open Studios

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Nick Bonovas

I am a self-taught Artist living in Sydney. I began drawing from an early age and experimented with paint and other mediums from the age of 12.

My passion and specialty is Greek art, with inspiration drawn from themes depicting Ancient Greece, as well as other genres. I have been commissioned to paint, draw, design and create murals for numerous cafes, restaurants and private residences both here and overseas. Easily motivated to create, I especially enjoy painting murals, two of which are on display in café restaurants in Greece. I have no boundaries.

My life is my art. My work has been exhibited at the Greek Embassy in Canberra, The Hellenic Club, Canberra, and ‘Hellenic Inspirations’ Tap Gallery, Sydney.

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Constantinos Emmanuelle

CALL

Constantinos (Costas) Emmanuelle is currently the Lead Teacher for the Visual Arts Department at Melbourne Polytechnic in Melbourne, Australia. As a practising artist, Costas has explored and investigated his cultural heritage through disciplines such as, illustration, photography, drawing, painting, graphic design and digital imaging.

Costas’ most ambitious creative journey so far has been a personal crusade to document the living memories of his parent’s generation in a cultural arts project called ‘Tales of Cyprus’. This multi-disciplinary art project explores his parent’s homeland of Cyprus and its culture and traditional way of life prior to the 1950’s. In this project Costas’ also documents stories of migration and new beginnings as many of his target subjects left Cyprus in the 1940s, 50s and 60s to resettled and start new lives in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States of America.

Costas’ first exhibition for Tales of Cyprus took place at the Chapel off Chapel gallery in Prahran (Melbourne) in 2014. The exhibition included original drawings, paintings and photography. Large panels displayed reproductions of rare old family photos with various quotations and translations derived from personal interviews Costas conducted with members of the Cypriot diaspora. The topic of displacement, migration and cultural identity was also explored in the exhibition.

More recently, Costas has written, designed and self-published a hard-bound book titled “Tales of Cyprus: A tribute to a bygone era.” The book contains the living memories and life stories of over forty elderly Cypriots who were born and lived in Cyprus during the first half of the 20th Century. Costas had spent seven years interviewing and documenting the living memories of elderly Cypriots from the Cypriot diaspora in Australia and other parts of the world. The book, written in English is therefore a recollection of a way of life that has all but disappeared.

  • 2014 – TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (NMIT – Melbourne)
  • 2010 – Diploma of Vocational Education and Training (Vet) Practice (NMIT)
  • 2006 – Graduate Diploma of Education: Applied Learning (Deakin Uni – Melbourne)
  • 1995 – Bachelor of Arts in Education – Tertiary Education (Curtin Uni – Perth)
  • 1982 – Diploma of Arts / Graphic Design (Phillip Insitute – Melbourne)

To view more of Costa’s work please visit www.talesofcyprus.com.

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Karen Barbouttis

Trained in the Animation Studios of Hanna Barbera and Disney, I continued to work in Animation as both an Animator and Character Concept Artist for the next 25 years.

I also worked as an Illustrator for books and product concept art and design.

My work has always centred on, and evolved from, the pencil mark on paper.

I attended the National Art school in 2008-2010 to expand on my art skills, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, Painting Major, with Distinction across all disciplines. Invited to continue in an Honours Degree in Drawing, I chose to defer and just enjoy being a creative artist. I found that I was irresistibly ‘drawn’ to the simplicity, immediacy, and the honesty, of the pencil line on paper.

In 2011, I entered my first art competition, The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, and was honoured to be announced the Winner for 2011.

Over the next few years I participated in both Solo and Group exhibitions in various galleries, in both Australia and Greece, as well as group exhibitions as finalist in various art competitions.

ARTISTIC PRACTICE

In my artistic practice the relationship of line, space, and place creates the dialogue that I choose to communicate with the viewer of my works. The subjects I draw are layers of fine vertical lines that create the form and define the subject. These lines are best seen from close viewing as they disappear when viewing from a distance. The vertical line is my “obsession”.

I enjoy the immediacy and simplicity of pencil on paper.

That is the beauty of “The Drawing”. It can be portable, disposable, spontaneous, deliberate, temporary, permanent. A quick sketch that captures the gesture or a detailed drawing that pushes the essence of the gesture to make it a detailed character analysis of the subject.

I walk every day, everywhere. I see things that I want to express as a drawing on paper. Pencil and paper are always on hand to record what I see. That is the beauty of the materials. Their immediacy and availability allow for the spontaneous and the more detailed work. My drawings are more than just drawings of any animal or any place. They are records of the places I have visited and the animals I have encountered in these places.

Pencil on paper is my drawing practice and the starting point to all my artistic practice.

DRAWING THE ANIMAL

“Drawing the Animal” is a collection of works and part of my continuing theme that All Life Matters.

Too often we look but don’t actually see.
I draw what I see.
The simple materials, pencil on paper, best translate what I see to what I want others to see.
The subjects that I choose to draw are what I see around me. Most times I chance upon them in my own backyard, and my daily walks through the streets, parks, and beaches in my neighbourhood. On other occasions I seek them, when travelling in other countries, in zoos, aquariums, farms, animals shows, and museums. There is endless inspiration that will keep me drawing for the rest of my life.

I enjoy observing animals and their interactions with their environment, with each other, and with the artist as observer. As the “artist as observer”, the first thing I want to capture is that moment when the animal I am either watching, drawing, or photographing, actually watches me. Eye contact with an animal is a special feeling as it is in that moment that I actually see, and it is in that moment also that I realise that all life has a soul, that all life has dignity, that all life has compassion, that all life wants to live. All life matters. Karen Barbouttis.

Exhibitions

2020 Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney
2018 Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney
2017 Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney
2016 Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney
2015 Art2Muse Gallery, Double Bay, Sydney
2015 “Lemnos – the Greek Dimension in the Anzac Centenary”, an Exhibition presented by the Embassy of Greece in Australia, Canberra.
2015 “In Red – 100 years from the Battle of Gallipoli” . Ochra Gallery, Thessoloniki, Greece.
2014 “Creatures”. Solo exhibition, S.G. art gallery, Athens, Greece.
2014 “Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing”. PLC Sydney.
2013 “Sydney Childrens Hospital Spring Exhibition”. Sydney Childrens Hospital, Randwick.
2013 Flanagan Art Prize, Ballarat.
2013 “Flora and Fauna”. Syndicate at Danks, Sydney
2013 Wilson Visual Arts Award, Lismore
2013 “St Spyridon College The Arts Exhibition 2013”. Invited Artist, Sydney
2013 Waverly Art Prize, Bondi-Waverly School of Arts, Sydney
2013 “All Creatures Great and Small”.Solo exhibition, Art2Muse, Sydney.
2013 “Nurturing Hellenic Heritage the Australian Way”. Hellenic Lyceum Sydney, Parliament House, Sydney.
2013 “Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing”. PLC, Sydney
2012 “The Mortimore Prize”. Sydney.
2012 “arc Yinnar Biennial Art Prize”.
2012 “Hunters hill Art Exhibition”. Sydney
2012 “Animals Exhibition”. Syndicate at Danks, Sydney
2012 “Drawings from The Animal Walk”. St Vincents Hospital, Sydney.
2012 “BSG Works on Paper Prize”. Fitzroy.
2012 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
2011 “Drawings from The Museum of Life”. St Vincents Hospital, Sydney.
2011 “Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing”. PLC, Sydney.
2010 “Selected Student Graduate drawing Exhibition”. National Art School, Sydney.
2010 National Art School Graduate Show, Sydney.
2009 “Exhibition of Selected Student Sketchbooks”. Stairwell gallery, National Art School, Sydney.
2009 “A Week on Cockatoo.”, Selected Student Work from the National Art School, Cockatoo Island, Sydney

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Sofia Xeros-Constantinides

Sophia Xeros-Constantinides’ art-making was re-awakened as a mother of two. Once Sebastian and Bianca were both at school she was able to study Fine Art part-time as a mature-aged student at Monash University, Caulfield Campus. Prior to this, Sophia had seen her dear mother, Maria Xeros Colbert, learn to paint at summer school in Melbourne in the 1960s, under the direction of artists Robert Grieve and Dawn Westbrook, and later Sophia saw Maria extend her embroidery skills to new heights at the Embroiderer’s Guild, Victoria.

Through her clinical work as a Medical Doctor and Psychological Therapist treating pregnant women and new mothers, Sophia started to explore the visualisation of women’s reproductive experiences. This led Sophia to use drawing, printmaking and collage in her post-graduate art-making, to create her own visual metaphors for the complex and often traumatic reproductive experiences that women reported to her and to others. Sophia’s own maternal grandmother, Yiayia Evdokia, lost her first-born babe-in-arms Eleftheria when they had to flee Smyrna before the catastrophe in September 1922. Later, Evdokia had thirteen more pregnancies but only five babies survived to grow as children and adults.

In her Collage work, Sophia explores the female form and questions what it is to be human. Her art-practice is characterised by appropriation and juxtaposition that manifest in her collage works on paper and in her prints and drawings. These works challenge integrity and identity, recall surrealistic and uncanny forces and give expression to alternative realities.

Since completing her PhD, Sophia has taken up Painting in oils and gouache. For this she has ventured to Europe, and back to England, where she had lived for eight years, in her secondary school years, in Birmingham with her aunt Margaret Ryle and her dear Uncle Nick. She finds inspiration in the traditions of European art, in figurative painting, in colour and in representing the interface between Nature and (Western) Culture.

QUALIFICATIONS
1998-2001: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University
2002-2005: Masters of Fine Art (by Research) Monash University (Thesis Title: “Procreative Bodies Envisioned: A Visual Exploration of Female Reproductive Experiences.”)
2006-2017: Doctor of Philosophy (Fine Art)(by Research), Faculty of Art & Design, Monash University. (Thesis Title: “Strangers in a Strange Land: Envisioning the Darker side of Motherhood.”)

ART THERAPY PUBLICATION
‘Myself as a Tree: The enabling power of an Art Therapy intervention in clinical work with post-natally distressed women-mothers’ in “Therapeutic Arts in Pregnancy, Birth and New Parenthood” Edited by Susan Hogan, Routledge, New York, 2021.

SELECTED PRIZES / AWARDS
2012: Mayoral Art Prize Maroondah City Council (acquisitive)
2006: Prize-winner (acquisitive) textile art in Fabricate 2006, Embroiderers’ Guild, Vic
2002: Australian Postgraduate Award

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016: Bitter-Sweet Embrace PhD Exam Exhibition, Monash Uni, MADA Gallery, Caulfield
2013: More Earthly Delights, Catherine Asquith Gallery, Collingwood
2012: Earthly Delights, Jackman Gallery St Kilda. 20-page catalogue, Earthly Delights
2010: Bedlam: The bitter-sweet embrace of motherhood, Maroondah Art Gallery, exhibition of collage, drawings and digital prints. 28-page catalogue, Bedlam
2009: Gestate – AAIMH/Marcé Conference Solo Exhibition, University of Melbourne
2006: Running with Pigs – Solo Exhibition exploring peri-natal loss, P.O. Gallery, Ballarat
2005: Concoct – Masters Fine Art by Research Exhibition, Monash Faculty Gallery, Caulfield
2001: Template: Beginnings & Becomings-An exploration of women’s experience in relation to reproduction, Women’s Bodies/History Conference, University of Melbourne

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