London based Greek artist Christina Mitrentse will present exclusively in Lola Nikolaou gallery and at Kalos&Klio showroom a selection of her popular series ‘Models for public sculptures on plinths’ and ‘Iconic mushroom portraits’ exhibited in her last solo show in London. 

Mitrentse investigates the esoteric qualities of cultural construction oscillating between a collector, storyteller and curator through processes of painting, handcrafted sculpture, installation and conceptual appropriation. Her collection of handcrafted book-sculptures, together with eccentric groupings of graphite mushrooms and popular objects present a humorous sculptural meditation on monumental materiality. The iconoclastic and conceptual vocabularies are drawn from artifacts within diverse London museums. Re-contextualized into columns, podiums and tombs, they propose ‘models for public sculptures’ that yield a contemporary library or museum defying conventional categorization. In her drawings and collages viewers are invited to shift their gaze between individual mushrooms and their shared significance as they together evoke the faces of ordinary people. Fungi’s parasitical nature is suggestive of the certainty of decay, the absurdity of mortality, and a new divine beauty born from mutation. The works reveal a collective longing, a dark psychological aspect and an enjoyment of the sublime and the ridiculous that connect with and interrogate contemporary society; it’s myths and popular culture. The Metaphorics of hallucination, surrounding notions of spiritual revelation, and the vagaries of the human mind, function as normal episteme.

Mitrentse is an established Greek visual artist and art educator based in London. With an Onassis foundation fellowship, she holds an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design and a PGCE from University of Greenwich. Her artworks are included in both private and public collections in Europe and the United States.

Selected shows include: Solo Library at Greenwich Heritage Centre, London. Solo-Domestic Gods and Mushroom heroes, Hackney Empire theater, 09-10. Solo-Building My Library, NO:IDgallery ‘09, Happiness machines’-RiseBerlin, Berlin 10. Brench/Absorb ,Oblong gallery 09, In/Flux HTAP, London 09. Brussels Art Fair ‘09 The Apartment Gallery Athens. Impromptu,Schwartz Gallery London ’09. Public Project Commission, Greenwich Foot Tunnel 08-09 London. ‘Time’ Stephen Lawrence Gallery Greenwich 08. The End of the Earth’ at NDSM- Amsterdam 08.‘Emerging Artists Explore Cinema’ Griechishe Kultustiftung Berlin 06. The Secret School Solo show in a bomb shelter, London 05. An Outing, Contemporary Art from Beltsios Collection Athens 06. She also co-curates international shows in London and Greece, most noticeably Celestial Contrakt , Schwartz gallery London 09, ‘Who Cares About Greek Art?’ Athens 06, and ‘The Flat Pack’ Deptford London 06.

Private Viewings: Lola Nikolaou 4th May  19.00- 11.00
Kalos&Klio showroom :5th May 19.00-11.00
Duration 4 May- 5 June 2010

Gallery Lola Nikolaou Tsimiski 52, 
Thessaloniki, 
Greece

Kalos & Klio Showroom, 
Tsimiski 96, 
Thessaloniki, 
Greece

email:
lnik@otenet.gr
kalosklio.showroom@gmail.com