Bio
Aikaterini was born and raised in Greece.
She studied Architecture in the United Kingdom. She is a registered Architect with years of experience in the field of the Build-Environment She has worked and collaborated with Architectural offices, Management Facility and Construction Companies in Germany, Greece and England. She is currently based in Germany, working as a Senior Architect in a World-Wide Infrastructure Firm.
Parallel to her professional career, Aikaterini enjoys the freedom of art making, especially in the form of painting. Her parents are both creatives, each in their own way, so she is deeply influenced by both. She had her on and off periods of art making but during the past few years she is experiencing a really productive period, resulting in a more personalised body of work in her own signature style. This has made her more confident than ever to pursue her-forever-dream-path, that of an artist.
Art Statement
My art is about an ongoing search of my role in this reality, this planet, this society. It is about my feminine aspect against the masculine. Society, Religion, Tradition, career all are orchestrated between these two. Through my art I explore subjects like abuse, sexism, feminism, racism, discrimination. I draw inspiration from Greek Mythology and Homer which are full of such allegories. I am influenced by the fragmented-from-time bodies of ancient greek sculptures, the broken limps transform them into an abstract form. I am also fascinated by the Ancient Cycladic figurines. I admire how time has stripped all unnecessary to leave them in their absolute purity of material and form. I try to do this with my work, to begin with excess and "build layers of subtraction". Another big interest of mine are all shorts of Tribal Masks. Humans have a dear relationship with Masks, they use them both literary and metaphorically. I think of my portraits as masks, masks that we wear everyday to fit in in a very ill society. For me adding and subtracting is very important, it is the outmost balancing of my inner-self.
My design approach is mixing opposing forces. Order with chaos, warming memories against cold sharp edges, dreams against nightmares. I am truly terrified of the dark, I believe in its depth. I respect the dark, our dark sides, the unknown, it brings this richness like expensive velvet. I also like to "mix time" together, the old with the new, the before with the after. All our existence is built on individual now moments.. The relationship between elements and forces, wether building materials, furniture, textiles or paints is like creating love stories. Opposite elements attract, soft with rough, cold with warm, extravagant with shy. I always had a tendency to match things, to match people. I obsessively observe my surroundings, people, nature and our urban building environment. I look for the unexpected, for an instant moment, of linear airplane formations in the sky, a shape of a tree hanging at the edge of a cliff, of a spider web. I look for uncultivated, abstract and pure beauty, in a form of a stone, in the veins of marble.
Me and my husband enjoy drives through the city. I like peeking through windows and trying to catch a glimpse of a piece the ceiling light or the light it emits and make up stories. Stories of who might be living there. Questions pop in my head. Are they happy? Are they rich or poor? Locals or foreigners? I also enjoy Flea markets with old furniture and old paintings. It grounds me, keeps me humble before the vastness of time. Antiques, vintage, Flea Market stuff that are aged and weathered bring a depth in the Interiors and I have come to realise that this sense of Time-gone-by against the new and or the futuristic is was makes a sophisticated Design concept.
My professional career is not that romantic. The Built-environment Sector can be as sterile and clinical as a lab, as monotonous as working in a repetitive job. This is where Art comes in for me. Art for me is like taking off an Astronauts Helmet. Is like getting naked in water without anyone watching. It is like a short of outer body experience but at the same time so me, a stranger me. I could say is almost like a drug and highly addictive. If you begin with Art and you stop, you become miserable, your mind and body really hurts. Therefor, my painting is mostly instinctive, I don't care to interfere. This "Face", which repeats itself in my paintings transforms into a "Mask" and this transformation is a key point in my work. We all wear our "Masks". Metaphorically and literally. We all like to wear costumes and Masks, we love hiding behind a fake identity, it can give us what we lack of, like power, femininity, control. We use invisible and visible masks every single day for thousands of years. I guess, I would like to bring awareness on this subjects.
This "Face-Mask" is divided in spaces, much like an architectural plan, that can be filled or be left as a void. This organic architecture, creates a unique semiological form that expresses a state of mind or a state of being.
In each of these "Faces-Masks" I can see my own deep emotional abyss. Each one is a self-portrait, of you and me.