Christina Mitrentse is an established Greek -London based artists' and art educator. 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. Mitrentse investigates the esoteric qualities of myth through possessing a dexterity of techniques, including handcrafted sculpture, drawing, printmaking, installation and conceptual appropriation.
Her artworks are included in both private and public collections in Europe and the United States. Selected shows include: Salon Art Prize at Matt Robert Arts London 10. ' Add to my Library' at Departure gallery London 10. Hackney Wood Prize at The Residence gallery, 10. 2 man Show Lola Nikolaou gallery,Greece 10. Brussels Art Fair ‘09 - Apartment Gallery Athens. Residency ‘Impromptu’ at Schwartz Gallery London ’09. Public Project Commission at Greenwich Foot Tunnel 08-09 London. ‘Time’ Stephen Lawrence Gallery-Greenwich. ‘Terra Extremitas - The End of the Earth’at NDSM- Amsterdam 08.‘Emerging Artists Explore Cinema’ Griechishe Kultustiftung Berlin 06. ‘The Secret School’ - Solo Project at a bomb shelter, London 05. Contemporary Art from Beltsios Collection Athens 06. She also co-curates international shows in London and Greece, most noticeably 'Celestial Contrakt' (awarded top 5 shows Time out) London 09. ‘Who Cares About Greek Art?’ Athens 06, and ‘The Flat Pack’ Deptford London06. Upcoming 2011/12 curatorial Vice Verca- Verca Vice,International show based on Nikos Alexiou Collection at Stephen Lawrence Gallery.
www.christinamitrentse.com/
Mitrentse's practice oscillates between that of storyteller and collector. The work incorporates the extensive use of these disciplines to coerce the iconoplastic and conceptual vocabulary, in an endeavor to designate the peculiarity of this relational space of aesthetics. Ignoring traditional hierarchies of display, Mitrentse creates a freedom to suggest new narratives and poetic ensembles of personal institutions such as schools, libraries, churches, academies and museums.
Mitrentse's on- going project ADD TO MY LIBRARY re-contextualizes books that become ‘significant objects’ not to be read, but experienced within the physical space. She prompts viewers to explore ideas of materiality and how we address traditional modes of relaying knowledge within an obsessive cultural context of hypertexts, virtual communication and the Internet. The cover-less books are folded together to create an intrinsically infinite organic structure that begins to approach an architectural Floor plan or a pattern. Expanded into organic matter, twisted or stuck together, they form small scale Podiums and other times printed editions of her ‘Flags’ /Emblems’.
