Tina Sideris

CALL

Love of the visual arts especially colour and pattern, inspired by both ethereal and earthly beauty has always captivated me.

My yearning to interpret the external world and my internal world , through the visual medium, is what gives me joy. It also helps me make sense of life’s journey. By drawing on my life, including my upbringing (family), my schooling, my travels, my daughters and husband, I am never at a loss for inspiration, for subject matter. It is also these very relationships and experiences that drive my desire to visually capture those reflections.

Thematically I take inspiration from these influences and the myths and legends of my heritage. Here I draw on the power and allure of the ancient goddesses and see these elements in all women today: by reflecting on the past, my art keeps me firmly rooted in the present.

My love of Matisse’s odalisques, religious iconography and Japanese woodblocks have all inspired how I approach my subject matter. Their serenity and stillness in a moment of contemplation and reflection (however fleeting that moment is). I like how they capture the transcendental in the ordinary.

The artform of pyrography allows me to celebrate a simple decorative style, letting the lines and colours work alongside the natural surface of the wood (something of the earth and so earthly) to tranquilly co-exist. I enjoy the interchange between materials and techniques, including, the egg tempera technique and the gilded glass technique of ‘verre eglomise’ that was predominant during the Renaissance period. My studio practice is continually evolving and I enjoyed my most recent intersection between the manual and digital mediums. The product a hybrid of analogue and digital montages, that so closely paralleled our world as we are living it today.

My art is simultaneously decorative, serene, sensual and grounded.

My plans are to extend my subject matter further into the realms of the imagination and to organically allow the interchange between materials and techniques and to allow myself to escape in the process and learn from where this journey takes me. Every stage illuminating the way. I find beauty and mystery in all aspects of life and that is why I pursue this enigmatic path and build on the mystery of storytelling.

  • Monash University Bachelor of Arts 1985
  • Monash University Diploma of Education 1986
  • Monash University Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design) 1992
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Sotiris Mantalvanos

I was born in Anninata, Kefallonia in 1936 and arrived in Australia 30 years later in 1966. I always had an urge to work with wood – to sculpt it, sand it and carve it. In 1970 I created the ‘Kri-Kri’ of Crete from a forgiving, soft wood and in 1971 the classic trireme. A third work was produced in1974 of a Dachsund. I did not refer to imagery or models for these work, nor did I intend to create them – it was as if they needed to be produced based on an internal desire.
In the early 1980’s a similar urged prompted me to illustrate graphite images of nature and in time, I moved onto acrylic painting. During this decade, there were significant findings of long lost Chinese sculptures and these prompted me to duplicate one of the a horse’s head that was unearthed.
I felt compelled to pursue my wood carving craving, without having had any professional tutoring and without obtaining any formal certification.
I feel that I have no choice but to produce these works, as they are called upon from within.

To view more of my carvings please visit Woodcarving by Sotiris Manatalvanou.

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Anne Warren (Sampsonidis)

Anne Warren works in several different mediums including painting, drawing, collage and mixed media.

Her abstract paintings are responses to mood through several layers of paint with the final result emerging through erasure. This technique can have an element of planning with the final result emerging by chance.

The collage mixed media work dislocates found images into new and unexpected environments that can sometimes be described as plausible and at other times implausible.

Anne teaches workshops from her home studio.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Distinction) 2009
Visual Art Diploma (2001)

Events & Projects

2018  Mergence @ Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Canberra

2010 Winner, Tales of a Greek Migrant, Hellenic Museum, Winner
The kindest adult colouring book of all time – art fundraiser.

2015 Curated 23 contributing artists by Anne Warren 

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Emmy Mavroidis

‘A gesture in visual art is an expression of an idea or meaning which is presented and performed through the somatic effect on material and site. In other words, it is an expression of the body’s temporal rhythm, as well as a record of the body’s interaction and encounter with material and space.‘ Emmy Mavroidis

Born in 1965 in Melbourne, Emmy Mavroidis is a Master by Research candidate at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at The University of Melbourne. Currently, she is conducting research focusing on Drawing: Gesture, the Body, and Movement. At the Faculty of Fine Art and Music, The University of Melbourne, she earned a Master’s in Contemporary Art in 2020. Following her completion of her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) degree at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1986, she earned her Diploma in Education in 1992.

She founded Nyora Studio Gallery in 2003, a thriving arts centre in Melbourne. Emmy teaches & mentors other artists through the Nyora Gallery Resident Artists Program as well as holding exhibitions and workshops on drawing and sculpture.

2021-current Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, The University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts Master of Fine Art, by Research
2019-20 The University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts Fine Arts & Music, Master of Contemporary Art
2003 – current Nyora Studio Gallery Director, Melbourne
1991 The University of Melbourne, Institute of Education. Diploma of Education
1984–1986 Victorian College of the Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting

SELECTED PRIZES AND AWARDS
2023 Artist in Residence at DRAWinternational Caylus, France
2022 Recipient of The University of Melbourne, Stuart Black Memorial Scholarship for excellence in drawing.
2020 Winner of the Arnold Bloch Leibler Award, Yering Station Sculpture Award, Yarra Glen, Victoria.
2020 Grant awarded, Nillumbik Shire Council. Time of COVID-19, Art and Cultural Development,
2019 Montalto Sculpture Prize, Finalist, Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove, Red Hill, Victoria
2018 Lorne Sculpture Biennale Small Sculpture Prize, Finalist, Lorne, Victoria
2016 Winner, Yering Station Sculpture Award, Yering Staff & Directors Choice Award, Yarra Glenn, Victoria
2015 Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, Finalist 2014 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize – Semi-finalist
2013 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize – Semi-finalist
1985 Clifton Pugh Drawing Prize, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Victoria
1985 The Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria Award, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Victoria

Stuart Black Memorial Scholarship Award

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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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Maritsa Micos

My artwork draws energy and inspiration from the land in its many forms, The layers of impasto and graffiti like marks are evident within my contemporary mixed media palette which comprises of acrylics, aerosol, collage, gouache, ink, graphite. Artists such as De Kooning, CY Twombly and Aida Tomescu have influenced my style.

The process of mark making became my focus when I joined the Drawing Marathon in Soho NY and worked under mentor Graham Nickson. The vocabulary of drawing crossed the boundaries of paint and my personal style broadened through unorthodox tools and exercises. As a result my art process became intuitive in its approach.

  • Bachelor Fine Art University of New South Wales
  • New York School of Painting drawing and sculpture

My art is fluid and interpretive. My recent project involves multi-media collage influenced by the luxury market. 

“The challenge was not to translate everything I see, but rather create spaces which house the information.” 

Maritsa Micos Dragonas

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Theo Papathomas

Theo is an Australian artist based in Melbourne Australia, with a BA in Fine Art from RMIT University (1983).

“I consider myself an experimental artist using different mediums and various styles, always challenging my practice. My inspiration comes from being part of the Australian landscape, witnessing and experiencing the energy of its dramatic seasonal change”.

The images and symbols which are represented in Theo’s work are completely spontaneous and intuitive without the use of drawings to guide.

2018 Van Der Plas Gallery New York, group exhibition & 2018 solo exhibition
2017 Tacit Art Galleries Melbourne, group exhibition & 2017 solo exhibition
2016 Steps Gallery Melbourne, group exhibition & 2016 solo exhibition
2014 Fortyfivedownstairs Art Gallery, solo exhibition
2012 Fortyfivedownstairs Art Gallery, solo exhibition
2010 Peters Gallery Cyprus, solo exhibition
2008 Fortyfivedownstairs Art Gallery, solo exhibition

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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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