One to Watch
The ethereal figures of Greek artist Georgia Theologou instantly problem the viewer with their direct and unrelenting gaze. Mysterious, alluring, and infrequently weak, these girls eschew their worldly selves, channeling as an alternative the emotive energy of their isolation in addition to their sisterhood, their pleasure alongside ache. Intensely luminous, Georgia’s topics morph to imitate the divine, recalling the mythos of her homeland.
The Athens-based painter acquired her Masters from the Athens College of Effective Arts in 2021, and she or he’s participated in quite a few exhibitions since in each her dwelling metropolis and London. Expertise the celestial ascension of human fragility with June’s One to Watch.
Inform us about who you might be and what you do. What’s your background?
My title is Georgia Theologou, and I’m a visible artist from Greece. I used to be born and raised within the industrial suburbs of Athens in the course of the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s—a spot that, regardless of its rawness, gave me a powerful sensitivity to distinction and wonder. I’ve been drawn to artwork since I used to be 4 years outdated, once I first began experimenting with watercolor paints on paper. I studied portray on the Athens College of Effective Arts, and I now keep an energetic studio follow in Athens.
What does your work intention to say? What are the key themes you pursue in your work?
My work explores themes of feminine empowerment, private transformation, and non secular emergence. I work primarily in oil, usually depicting the feminine kind. In my summary sequence, I present the symbolic and emotional features of transformation. These work aren’t literal depictions of butterflies however slightly energetic impressions of turning into. They usually focus on flowing, radiant varieties that counsel motion, vulnerability, and transcendence. I create shimmering natural shapes that rise like wings or flames, referencing the form of a butterfly.
Are you able to stroll us by way of your course of for creating a piece from starting to finish?
After I paint figuratively, I normally start with a really clear picture in my thoughts. I do know what I wish to seize emotionally and visually, so I begin by creating and gathering photograph references to assist floor that imaginative and prescient. However even with a powerful idea, there’s at all times a second within the course of the place I let go of the plan and permit the portray to take its personal route. After I work extra abstractly, the method is rather more spontaneous. I normally start with free, random shapes, with none mounted thought of the end result. It’s a extra instinctive and experimental course of, guided much less by imaginative and prescient and extra by sensation.
How do you hope viewers reply to your works? What would you like them to really feel?
I hope viewers expertise a way of magnificence and a mirror of one thing deeper, just like the human capability to remodel, to emerge from darkness, and to reconnect with the true self. I’m significantly drawn to the imago stage when the butterfly emerges in its remaining kind. It’s a second of lightness and freedom, however it comes after a protracted interval of stress and interior change. So whereas I need viewers to be captivated by the ethereal colours, flowing traces, and luminous varieties, I additionally hope they really feel seen in their very own moments of “turning into.”
How does your work touch upon present social and political points?
Whereas my work just isn’t overly political, it engages with themes which can be socially and culturally related, like feminine empowerment, self-reclamation, and non secular transformation. Via luminous depictions of the feminine kind and summary symbols of metamorphosis, I discover what it means to return to the true self and reconnect with the soul past roles, expectations, and societal noise. In that approach, my work speaks to the broader difficulty of identification and the ability of therapeutic. I see private transformation as a quiet type of resistance.
Who’re your largest influences and why?
My largest influences come from books and work. Annie Besant has had a profound affect on the way in which I view the unseen dimensions of existence. Her writings on Theosophy and the non secular construction of actuality impressed me to discover vitality, consciousness, and transformation by way of a visible language and to see portray not simply as illustration, however as revelation. Artistically, I’m deeply drawn to Agnes Pelton and Hilma af Klint. Each have been girls who painted interior worlds and non secular visions, and their work resonates with me not solely aesthetically but additionally of their use of symbolism and abstraction to precise one thing larger and extra everlasting.
Do you like to work with music or in silence?
I’ve labored with music, in silence, and even with individuals round me. It is dependent upon the vitality of the day or the emotional area I’m in. But when I’m sincere, I believe I’m most related to my work in silence. There’s one thing concerning the stillness that enables me to hear extra intently, not simply to the portray, however to myself. It turns into virtually meditative.
What was the most effective recommendation given to you as an artist?
The perfect “recommendation” I acquired wasn’t framed as recommendation in any respect. Certainly one of my professors as soon as advised me, very instantly, that some artists have it straightforward, and others must wrestle. He wasn’t making an attempt to discourage me, however slightly to mirror the truth of the trail forward, particularly given my background and the shortage of sure privileges or connections. On the time, it was troublesome to listen to, however it turned out to be a present. It grounded me. That remark made me mirror on why I create within the first place, and I spotted that I might maintain going regardless of how laborious it was.
