Constantine 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 very early works, are more abstract and less referencial in nature. ART LINES explores space, digital photography and drawing to create rich coloured abstract line-scapes. Visit 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.
For over last four decades, Effy has been documenting the historical and contemporary presence of Greek-Australians both here and overseas, in partnership with historian Leonard Janiszewski. She is publicly recognised as ‘the photographer who popularised Greek-Australian history’ and is acclaimed as one of Australia’s leading socio-cultural documentary and portrait photographers. Renowned for her intimate and sensitive portrait presentations, she is considered a pioneer in debunking Greek-Australian stereotypes and presenting the complex personal, diverse and evolving faces, lifestyles and occupations of Greek Australians, across generations. Effy’s images are held in major public collections, including the National Gallery of Australia, the State Library of New South Wales and the Australian Embassy in Athens. Effy has curated and co-curated various fine art, photographic and sociocultural exhibitions, together with sociocultural installations. Major cultural spaces around the country have exhibited her work. Effy has also exhibited internationally. Her two most significant exhibitions have been the ‘In Their Own Image: Greek-Australians’ (this is also the title to their ongoing national archive project) and ‘Selling an American Dream: Australia’s Greek Café’ that was launched at the National Museum of Australia in 2008. With Leonard, they have produced four major books; three extensive exhibition catalogues; more than 250 book chapters, articles or conference papers; and three film documentaries. In 2022 Effy was recognised as a ‘Woman of Influence’ by the Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) for her photographic documentary work spanning 40 years. In early 2023 Effy’s work was published in a new book, ‘Forty Photographs, A Year at a Time’ where she selected one contemporary image from her vast archive to represent each year since 1982 to the present in order to reveal the changing face of Greek-Australians. In late 2023 she will be releasing her latest book, ‘The Heart of Giving, Father Nektarios’ Soup Kitchen’ where since early 2021 she has been documenting the work of Father Nektarios, a Greek Orthodox priest who with his many volunteers have been providing a soup kitchen from the church hall at Sts Constantine and Helen Church in the inner-west suburb of Newtown.
BA, from Sydney University, in 1980, majoring in Fine Arts and Archaeology
Diploma in Education (Secondary – Art), Sydney Teachers’ College, 1981
Post-Graduate Diploma in Professional Art Studies (Photography), from Sydney’s City Art Institute, 1983
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.”
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.
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
