Re-Surface

I'm having a solo exhibition in London at Tenderpixel gallery!

Re-Surface
Marina Kassianidou

Private View: Thursday, August 13, 6 - 9 PM
Exhibition: August 13 - September 5, 2009

PRESS RELEASE

Tenderpixel is pleased to present Re-Surface, the first solo London exhibition of Marina Kassianidou.

Re-Surface comprises of paintings and drawings on various surfaces that explore ways of thinking around relationships and hierarchies between mark/material/figure/surface. The artist paints and draws marks in response to each surface she uses, referencing patterns and echoing scratches, dirt and stains in the actual gallery space. The play between mark and surface within each work continues in the placement of the work, with the walls and floors of the gallery acting as surfaces on which to compose an installation.

The placement of the works re-activates elements already existing in the gallery space - galvanizing their historicity as palimpsests are revitalized and elements are reconfigured and reinterpreted. Investigating notions of texture and surface, Marina's installation includes 'pseudo-hidden art,' such as the placement of linoleum pieces on a similar floor - oscillating between being a piece of art or a piece of floor, between presence and absence. By partially blending into its surroundings, the work relates to the notion of a "fugitive" image/artwork and offers an alternative discourse. As Andrew Smaldone writes in an essay that accompanies the exhibition, "Kassianidou's work functions in a space where patterns and references to banal domestic environments begin to take on political/social overtones; where a healthy dialectical tension between opposites and a blurring of boundaries invite us to look again at things, forms, and spaces that at first glance we often think of as useless or easy to ignore."

Marina Kassianidou is an artist and writer based in Limassol and London. She graduated from Stanford University, CA, USA, in 2002 with a BA in Studio Art (with Distinction) and a BS in Computer Science (with Distinction). In 2005, she obtained a Master in Fine Art degree at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is currently pursuing a PhD in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited internationally and her writings have appeared in journals in the USA and Europe.

Tenderpixel Gallery
10 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4HE
www.tenderpixel.com