Celebrated exhibition Antipodean Palette returns this month to the Steps Gallery, showcasing the work of eleven Greek Australian artists.

An initiative of the Greek Australian Cultural League (GACL), this year the event is being led by Frixos Ioannides, who is the proud founder of the art platform. A member of the committee, it was in 2010 that he first proposed the idea.

“I had a word to the rest of the committee, suggesting we start something to look after the visual arts in the Greek community. Up to that point the GACL was mainly taking care of literary events, book launches, poetry and things like that, and publishing its annual magazine,” he recalls. 

Unsurprisingly, his suggestion was greeted with enthusiasm, and the inaugural exhibition would take place the following year in 2011.

“We’ve been having the exhibition ever since and it’s been very successful,” Mr Ioannides tells Neos Kosmos.

“It gives the artists in the community a chance to display their work; some are university graduates, but others are first generation who came to Australia from Greece, Cyprus or the Middle East.”

But aside from establishing a much-needed platform to exhibit art, Antipodean Palette is also a chance for artists in the community to meet and get to know one another, building a creative network of sorts.

Participating in this year’s exhibition are Con Constantinou, Helene Athanasiadis, Angy Labiris, Tina Sideris, Sophia Xeros-Constantinides, Stella Tsirka, Anne Warren, Kelly Varveropoulos, Nicholas Katris and Nikos Siouzios, including a group of four artists from WA known as the Masonik Art Collective, all of whom have set a very high standard. 

“It’s been getting better every year since the beginning,” says Mr Ioannides, adding that interest from new artists each year, from a variety of walks of life, means different outlooks are presented each year.

Despite emphasis on paintings and illustration, the rise of digital technologies the mediums allows for variety, with mixed media and 3D installations, collage, digital art, etched copper plates, and photography taking centre stage, so there’s sure to be something for everyone. 

Neos Kosmos reached out to four of the exhibiting artists to find out more about their art, inspirations and what led them to enter this year’s Antipodean Palette. 

Sophia Xeros-Constantinides

Artist and therapist (psychological medicine); lives in Melbourne

What led you to enter this year’s Antipodean Palette exhibition?

I saw the exhibition last time with a Greek friend of mine and enjoyed it very much. I entered to honour the memory of my yiayia Evdokia Xeros (made a refugee with her family in 1922), her babies living and lost, and in support of all mothers worldwide who are made afraid and dispossessed through war and terrorism.

What is your preferred medium?

I usually make art using drawing and collage, and I like to make prints from my collage, on paper and on canvas, so that I can make the imagery a larger size for exhibition. My collage process is always with scissors, paper and glue – I do not use the computer at all, as I am rather a ‘dinosaur’ when it comes to using computers. I am currently trying to learn to paint.

How long have you been creating your art?

I used to like art at secondary school (in England), but when I was 14 years old I had to choose between art and Latin, and could not decide. My teachers said I should do Latin because I was trying to get into medicine, and so that was the end of art-making for 26 years, until my daughter Bianca was three years old and I started a botanical illustration course at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. I loved it, and decided to do a degree in Fine Art at Monash University, Caulfield. I started in 1998, and just this year I have completed my post-graduate PhD Degree in Fine Art called ‘Strangers in a Strange Land: Envisioning the Darker side of Motherhood’. The two works in the Antipodean Exhibition were part of my examination exhibition ‘Bitter-Sweet Embrace’ held in June, 2016.

Where do you find the inspiration for your art?

My work explores motherhood and the mother-baby relationship. It celebrates motherhood, but also looks to the ‘undoingness’ that women experience when growing and birthing a baby. 

It gives visual form to the fear and anxiety, the ambivalence and loss and to the monstrous possibilities which confront women on their motherhood journeys.

Tell us a little bit about your entries.

Both of the Natura Morta works from the series ‘Earthly Delights’ are presented as digital prints on canvas, taken from original collage on found paper. I am representing the woman-mother as a still-life container which holds and feeds the developing foetus while it grows inside the woman’s body from a sperm and an egg into a baby ready to be born. 

It was conceived in 2011 while on a trip to Italy with fellow artists, where I happened upon a second-hand set of reproduction prints from the 1800s depicting antique views of Tuscany, ‘Viaggio Pittorico della Toscana’ (‘Pictorial Journey of Tuscany’). It felt like I had uncovered a treasure trove buried in time.

My impulse has been to work from each bi-fold in turn, using the material as a source of compositional inspiration for collage, referencing the genre of still life (‘natura morta’) and incorporating some of my own etching print work in the form of collage fragments, as well as found imagery from magazines, books and reproduction medical texts. 

I am proposing alternative pictorial journeys for the viewer, seen through the lens of my own gender and culture – that of a 21st century feminist Australian artist and clinician, with a Mediterranean heritage.

Nicholas Katris

Artist, retired architect and lecturer; born in Alexandria, Egypt, lives in Melbourne

What is your medium?

For the last three years I have been working with acrylics, which is the medium of the paintings submitted for the exhibition. I continuously experiment with different mediums such as charcoal, sanguine, pencils, and pastels depending on the subject.

Have you always been artistically inclined?

I started painting at a young age and my love for the arts lead me to study architecture and interior design. I practiced as an architect for 35 years and also lectured in design. Retirement from my vocation was the opportunity to revitalise my interest in fine arts and engage with the local art community through seminars, workshops and exhibitions. I am a traditional painter developing gradually to be an impressionist.

What inspires your work?

I am inspired by many things in my paintings; people, nature, and the ever-changing light. This, together with intense observation, produces countless moments of inspiration. Observing and studying subjects leads me to a concept or theme and eventually this is interpreted as composition, then art on canvas. I also find inspiration in the serene landscapes and seascapes of the Greek islands, which I visit regularly.

What led you to enter Antipodean Palette?

I have been entering paintings into exhibitions over the last two years. In 2015 I visited the Antipodean Palette exhibition and I was impressed by the high standard of the exhibits.

Can you tell us a little bit about your entries?

The theme for the Antipodean Palette 2016 exhibition is Australian and the Greek culture. It was difficult selecting appropriate paintings from my collection which I paint in series.

The paintings exhibited show my love for the sea and human nature that lead me to paint seascapes, landscapes and people.

Kelly Varveropoulou

Photographer; born in Greece, recently migrated to Melbourne

What inspired you to enter Antipodean Palette?

I wanted to show and share my work with the community.

Can you tell us a bit about your entries?

One of the photographs I entered is of Cafe Melina in Plaka, the historic centre of Athens. It has its own special history, named Cafe Melina in 1994 to honour the Greek goddess Melina Mercouri; a woman who offered so much to her country.

I also entered an image of Monastery Filerimos on Rhodes island, which was built in the 15th century by the knights of Saint John and constructed with stone in a Gothic style on the site of an older Byzantine monastery. 

Another one is titled Kissing the sun goodbye, taken in Greece, and one taken in Rye at the beach, which for me captures the title, which is Happiness.

What inspires you? And how long have you been creating your art?

I have been taking photos for 25 years. During that time everything has inspired me; a smile, a small tree leaf, a look.

Nikos Siouzios

Artist and translator/interpreter; born in Epirus, Greece, lives in Melbourne 

What is your medium?

I normally work with wood, steel and stone but these figures [Zeibekiko Dancers] are made of sawdust, wood glue and chicken wire.

What led you to enter this year’s Antipodean Palette exhibition? 

I was prompted by another artist and the figures have a distinct Greek flavour.

Can you tell us a little bit about your entry?

In the zeibekiko dance figures (dancing your sorrows off), I wanted to capture the solitude and individuality of that male dance form.

What inspires your art work? 

The inspiration for this particular piece came from Dionisis Savopoulos’ song ‘Μακρύ Ζεϊμπέκικο για το Νίκο’ (The Long Zeibekiko For Nikos) based on a true story in the late ’60s in Athens.

How long have you been creating your art? 

I am self-taught and have been working on 3D objects from a very young age; I started with stone carving and moved to different media.

The Antipodean Palette exhibition will be held at Steps Gallery, 62 Lygon Street, Carlton, VIC from 16 to 23 August. The gallery will be open Monday to Friday from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, and during the weekend 11.00 am to 3.00 pm. Opening night will take place on Tuesday 16 August at 6.30 pm. For further information, visit www.gacl.com.au or email antipodeanpalette@gmail.com