PRESS RELEASE
Maria Giannakaki
‘Beauty’
Opening Day: Thursday 17th October, 19:30 – 21:30
Duration: 17th October – 9th November 2024
Curated by: George Mylonas
Skoufa Gallery presents Maria Giannakaki’s new solo exhibition titled ‘Beauty’ which opens on Thursday 17th October, from 19:30-21:30 and will run until the 9th November 2024.
With her third solo exhibition at Skoufa Gallery, Giannakaki presents a new series of paintings which are deeply rooted to memories and personal experiences from her extensive study of the Chinese art. This time, her know-how converges with joyful settings where one can wander within the beauty hidden even in the most minute things.
In the text that accompanies the exhibition, George Mylonas the curator, mentions that: “Stories with objects brought from China, books bound with flowers, women appearing between dreams and reality, dogs yearning for caresses, compose the world of beauty suggested by Maria Giannakaki… A ‘dowry’ of porcelain objects that the artist brought to Greece – vases, tea-cups, pottery statuettes – form a group of four paintings displayed as a frieze. In a manner similar to scrolls, they are set unfolded on the walls for those who will visit Skoufa Gallery … Artworks that are densely painted with ink and pastels, with figures that do not dominate the composition but emerge in-between the objects with which they maintain a rather spiritual connection. As raw material, the porcelain, the pottery, the paper and the color that the artist brought form China, manage to bring flesh to the shape… In the larger compositions, the woman becomes the protagonist, as a symbol, sex, energy, femininity. A composite being on whose body-canvas, Giannakaki registers flowers, books, dogs, personal objects, as they emerge from within”.
