Nomatei

  

Nomatei, (a group of eponymous people that share the same ideology), by Eleni Zevgaridou,

at Gallery Genesis, Athens.

Artist's statement:

'Nomatei is a collection of handmade, minumental, representational portraits of individuals made of fired clay. Nomatei is a collective monument. It identifies differences of characters, advocates of diversity and eliminates hierarchies and social positions. It is a minument to human nature and to the thesis that everyone holds an important role in society. It offers space to frailty, to the seemingly insignificant and the often bewildered. These sculptural 'sketches' explore complementarity, understanding and social behaviour.

My investigation is about a complex web of interactions which take place in the process between agencies which might traditionally be understood as artist, subject, viewer, participant, recipient, audience and object'.

This is the agora, as in the ancient Greek agora, a central place in ancient Greek city-states.

The literal meaning of the word is 'gathering place' or 'assembly'. The agora was the centre of athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the city.

Looking at the individual pieces

The majority of the figures are reading or holding books.

Eleni Zevgaridou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. After 28 years in communication and advertising she turned her full attention to art. In 2010-12 she studied sculpture in Poland, and in 2015 she received her Masters in the UK which is where she lives now. She is a member of the Royal British Sculptors Society.

She was in the gallery when we visited so we were able to chat with her about her work.





In the exhibition there were also some ceramic sculptures on plinths: