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)
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
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
Born in Africa, I learned the skills of photography in a shop in Addis Ababa for a period of 5 years. I developed black and white and colour negatives, as well as the printing and development of slides, reattaching negatives and colourizing photographs with oil transparent paints. I migrated to Australia 50 years ago and studied digital painting and website production at TAFE.
Digital painting is something I love and have learnt using computers, digital photography and colour. 3D Photography is and has been a hobby for many years.
I am the editor of the Anagnostis e-Magazine which promotes Greek Australian writers and poets, artists, photographers, movie/film makers throughout Australia.
A contemporary artist and tutor, born in North West Greece, Mary arrived in Australia as an older child with her family.
Mary’s love of art began at an early age, continually pursuing various creative avenues such as painting, pottery, project and design to discover where her artistic passion lay. All the knowledge gained throughout her studies contributed to her skill as an artist and she has been consistently involved with painting and art projects ever since.
Nature, the environment and her travels in Australia and overseas have all been strong influences in her work. Having lived and worked in Darwin with extensive travel throughout the Northern Territory, Mary has attended and facilitated various painting workshops whilst also observing indigenous artists create their own unique and beautiful art.
“…the burnt sienna land and cobalt blue sea, are brought to life by colour and texture, appearing out of worldly and spiritual, become my inspiration to create, to dream, to visit. My art expresses the beauty of nature, the energy and spirituality around me, of peace, tranquillity and freedom. My art is of contemporary style with the use of vibrant colours, variety of techniques, textures, materials and mediums, it conveys the essence of my outback experiences. The vast red centre, the salt lakes, the deserts, the blue hues of the surrounding sea and my own exploration of the remote outback, where the elements of colour, texture, energy, and spirituality combine, inspire my need to express on canvas and through my paintings….I relive the mystique, the enormity, and uniqueness of our land…”
Mary has exhibited and sold her art extensively in both solo and group exhibitions and her art graces the walls of many art lovers and collectors both in Australia and Overseas.
Her paintings are currrently showing at Ryazanoff Gallery and Nissarana Gallery in Victoria.
Listed below are some of the galleries Mary has exhibited, both in solo and group exhibitions:
Alex Litsoudis is a Greek-Australian visual and performing artist with an intellectual disability.
Alex has been a well-known performer for over 25 years. His experience includes performances in the ABC series Seven Types of Ambiguity, A place called Maze (La Mama Theatre), Light of the Mind (Nocturnal Festival). In 2011, he produced his first autobiographical film, titled “Who is He?”, which was shown at various international film festivals and also aired on TV in Melbourne and Greece. The film was a semi finalist at the 2018 London Greek Film Festival. Alex is also a founding member of Fusion Theatre, an inclusive performance company.
Alex is also a practicing visual artist. He is involved with Artability, an inspiring visual arts program run by ADEC (Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities). In his first solo exhibition, which he has worked towards for a number of years, his artist statement reads-
‘Alex Litsoudis has been a practicing visual artist for over ten years. His passion is the creation of stories through painting, watching the canvas come alive with his ideas. Many of Alex’s paintings are memories from his childhood, or places he has visited, capturing moments and places that are important to him and which he seeks to share with his audience. This body of work, created over a number of years, showcases Alex’s wide-ranging talent and sensitivity in capturing his thoughts and ideas.
Nicholas started off his musical journey at a young age. From primary school through high school Nicholas perfected the art of playing drums. In the 1990’s he began playing with several local wedding bands and as a DJ performer at bars and nightclubs around Melbourne.
By 2000 Nicholas was well into the DJ business and performed as a percussionist on a regular basis. In 2010 he stepped back from the club scene and entered the corporate world of weddings, engagements and private functions.
Nicholas continues to build on his musical career with his motivation and tireless dedication in becoming a truly unique and highly requested musical performer, drummer and percussionist who has also mastered the toubeleki, a Greek traditional drum instrument often used in the traditional folk rhythms of Greek laiko and rebetiko music.
