Βorn in Athens in 1962, the artist and illustrator Photini Stephanidi – daughter of the painter Yannis Stephanidis – completed her studies in Painting and Fresco at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1986, under Yannis Moralis, Dimitris Mytaras and Konstantinos Xinopoulos. Her illustrations have featured in over seventy published works, including publications with Greek folk tales, literature and poetry (among them many collectors’ editions). Notable among the many prizes and distinctions her work has gained are the Bratislava Illustrators’ Biennale Plaque (2001), the Greek State Prize for Illustration (2003, 2007 and 2011), the Belgrade Illustrators’ Biennale “Golden Pen” (2005) and “Plaquette” (2010), the first prize for illustration from the Greek Section of I.B.B.Y. (1995, 2005 and 2011), her selection as the Hellenic Republic’s candidate for the 2004 Hans Christian Andersen Prize, the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awards and the 2009 B.N.F. (National Library of France).
Photini Stephanidi
Works
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Solo exhibition •
Zivasart Gallery•
Athens•
2022
Secret Gardens •
Macart Cultural Space•
Athens•
2018
Christos & Photini: Word & Image •
Gallery 7•
Athens•
2016
Icons on Eros •
Gallery 7•
Athens•
2013
Saveurs d'Ame •
Périple / Arts et Lettres Helléniques•
Brussels•
2012
The Strange Love of the White Horse and the Poplar Tree •
Art Space 24•
Athens•
2012
The Painting Looks Like a Fairytale •
Municipal Cultural Centre of Nea Ionia•
Volos•
2012
The Romantic Cat of the Deeps •
Harta Bookstore•
Volos•
2011
With the Paint-Brush of the Tales •
Miranda Art Gallery•
Hydra•
2011
The Statue Who Was Always Cold •
Charta Bookshop•
Volos•
2007
Eros and Psyche, Sappho and Without a Shadow •
Chyssothemis Art Gallery•
Chalandri•
2005
Shards of Absence •
Gallery of Art and Books•
Athens•
2004
Words and Pictures •
Heidelberg Town Hall•
Heidelberg•
2004
Paintings •
Polyedron Art Gallery•
Patras•
2000
Paintings •
Clasing Gallery•
Münster•
1999
Paintings and Engravings •
Chryssa Gallery•
Katerini•
1999
Paintings, Illustrations and Workshop •
Town Hall of Aghia Paraskevi•
Athens•
1998
Paintings •
Art and Literature Space•
Athens•
1998
Miranda Art Gallery•
Hydra•
1995
A Book •
Cervantes Institute•
Athens•
1988
Painting •
Eleni Koroneou Gallery•
Athens•
2023
2022
2018
2016
2013
2012
2012
2012
2011
2011
2007
2005
2004
2004
2000
1999
1999
1998
1998
1995
1988
Press
Photini Stephanidi begins her painting from the journeys of a gaze that surveys and illuminates, that delves deeper and internalises the “small and great world” of everyday life, of experiences, of memories, of expectations, of dreams, the world of the ephemeral yet defining, along with the other world, that of desires and the enlargement of the momentary, as it is captured by and springs up from the subconscious. In the visual reconstruction of all those ‘groups’ that make up her own ‘environments’, what comes first is the poetic way in which she puts them together, associatively, conveying the after-sensations of what is, ultimately, a polynomial reality. Her colours, earthly and joyful, transfuse a nostalgic and dreamy mood that nurtures and, simultaneously, dilates the insignificant details, which take on a semantic range, conquering, in her painting, their unprecedented value. In an abstract way, or, at other times, combining the recognisable elements of a more realistic language, Photini Stephanidi paints in the way that a sensitive receiver would keep notes in a journal. In her work, nature becomes human experience and, conversely, human experience becomes a synaesthetically vibrating ‘landscape’ that contains conflated times, places, rhythms, seasons, qualities, flavours, scents and sounds, which evoke musical natural frequencies. In essence, the painter depicts, through her psychic oscilloscope, realities, fictions and transcendences that negate decay and banish oblivion, bridging the gap between past and present, the contracted and the uncontracted, and the questions of life with its exclamation marks.
Athena Schina Art Critic and Historian