Eleni Maragaki
Degree: MA Fine art
University: Central Saint Martins
Graduation Year: 2022
New Blood Art Commentary
SPOTLIGHT / Notable Achievements 2023 / See in the studio
The process of observing is the process of mapping in Eleni Maragaki’s works spanning drawing, sculpture and ink prints. In the prints – of a range of sizes – of landscapes, interesting interrelations are created between the parts and the whole, between foreground and background. The visual revelation here concerns how the eye makes distinctions through imposing perspectives, which aren’t in fact static, settled, set. Eleni works from her research into Platonic geometries – the regular, elemental shapes that the Greek philosopher sought to establish as basic to the universe.
The geometric forms in Eleni’s work surpass and encompass us with their simplicity. In the sculptures these forms are poised in their dimensionality. This parallels how in the landscape prints there is an equilibrium between the forms, as decisive, and as in flux. The tension between white marks on a black ink background in the prints adds to the oscillation between the isolation and merging of forms.
This artist’s project demonstrates an essential energy. As with contemporary American artist Audrey Barcio – whose abstract geometrical works examine where Modernism intersects with the Virtual Industrial age – Eleni Maragaki reaches the universal through the particular, and the real through the virtual.
Director Sarah's take:
Her style and subject is unlike any other artist we are currently showing. The aerial, analytic viewpoint and reference to ancient printmaking techniques (woodcut blocks) – in addition to the mathematics of space underpinning the organic – fuses into a unique aesthetic. I find Elena's work fascinating. The mystical meets the mathematical. It will be interesting to see how her work evolves over time.
Artist Statement
My practice engages with geometry as a fundamental language that reveals an innate and intrinsic view of the world around us; a set of rules that derive from antiquity and have been expanded on throughout history becoming the scaffolding to systemise the urban environment and a means of comprehending nature. I examine the structure, system and materiality of the geometric form in its natural or artificial state, as something that strives to outlive the mortal nature of the human.
The observation of the city lies at the core of my work and as a response to the densely manufactured urban space, I am inspired by the delicacy found in the system of natural structures, including chemical elements and crystals. My research is a constant exploration of the meeting points between urban construction and the natural environment. Humankind projects the elements of continuity and order that are fundamental to geometry, on top of an unrefined and chaotic landscape. This desire to reveal geometric order across the natural is part of our effort on critically understanding ourselves within it.
Solo Exhibitions
(2019) Engraved Ark, F.O.B. Art Container, Athens, Greece
Group Exhibitions
(2023) The Graduate Art Show, The Vanner Gallery, Salisbury, UK
(2023) The Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Show, Dora House, London
(2023) Making Together - Art.et.al and The Royal Society of Sculptors, Dora House, London
(2023) Guildford House Open, Guildford House, Guildford
(2022) The Verdant Collection, TM Gallery, London
(2022) The Graduate Art Show, Woolff Gallery, London
(2022) The Thin Metal is Going Through My Left Ear Hole, LUX Moving Image, London, UK
(2022) Beyond Green - The Age of Adjustment, Chelsea College of Arts, Marquee, London, UK
(2022) Rising Stars, The Royal Over-Seas League, London, UK
(2022) SNFCC Christmas World 2022, Stavros Niarchos Park, Athens, Greece
(2022) Shijiazhuang Youth Art Biennale, Shijiazhuang Art Museum, Hebei, China
(2021) Public Encounters, Art Station Dubulti, Dubulti, Latvia
(2019) Water Democracy, Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece
(2019) Printed, The Blender Gallery, Athens, Greece
(2018) Levels, Numismatic Museum of Athens, Athens, Greece
(2016) Sixteen Years of Printmaking Research (1999-2016), Melina Merkouri Foundation, Athens, Greece
Competitions, Prizes & Awards
(2022) Shortlisted: The Rome Scholarship Award, Royal Society of British Artists, London
(2022) Winner: not just a shop and Tate Christmas Card Competition, UAL, London
(2022) Finalist: Maison/0 This Earth Sustainability Awards, UAL, London
(2022) Winner: The Muse Residency Competition, London
(2022) Winner: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Award for Public Installation, Athens
(2023) Finalist: First Plinth Award, Royal Society of Sculptors
(2023) Winner: Mahler & LeWitt Studios - Art for the Environment Residency Programme, Spoleto, Italy