Exploring the light of Serifos – A grandmother and granddaughter exhibition
ArtLab presents a selection of works by our beloved Helle Tzalopoulou and her granddaughter, Maya Barnstone.
In Maya’s words:
“This series is particularly important to me – it combines some of the most important elements of my life; my Greek Culture, my love for painting, my connection to Sérifos and the specialness of being able to share all those things with my Yiayia. “Artist to Artist,” she would often say when she spoke to me, it always made me feel seen. It was as if we understood one another in a special way because of our bond over painting. Her encouragement made me so happy; she always had the right words.
We planned ‘Exploring the Light of Sérifos; a Grandmother and Granddaughter Exhibition’ last summer at her 100th Birthday, over revithia and serifian wine. Despite our art styles being very different in aesthetic, I have drawn so much inspiration from her paintings. In this series, I’ve painted a collection of places on Sérifos, focusing on the magical light and shadow cast on traditional island architecture at different times of the day. This Exhibition is a homage to my summers on Sérifos, a way to keep my Yiayia’s memory alive through her brushstrokes. Her lessons are expressed through her many paintings hung on the walls of every house in every country where I have lived – about color, composition, light and more. The art is a reminder from her, a constant lesson in artistry that cannot be spoken but only absorbed”.
The duration of the exhibition will be: June 20 – July 18.
Operating hours: Mon-Sun 10:00 -14:00 / 18:00 – 22:00
The opening night of the exhibition will take place on July 8. Looking forward to meeting you all at Artlab!
Speaker
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Helle Tzalopoulou & Maya BarnstoneLearn more →HELLE TZALOPOULOU-BARNSTONE:
Helle Tzalopoulou-Barnstone was born in Constantinople in 1924. At three months old, her family fled to Athens where she was raised and educated. At age 20, she received a full scholarship to study at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, where she did her Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature. She completed her graduate degree in Fine Arts at Yale University, where she studied Painting and Color Interaction Theory with former Bauhaus artist, Joseph Albers. His influence is apparent in the rich and varied colors she used in all her works.Helle raised her three children Robert, Tony and Aliki in Bloomington, Indiana, a university city in middle America. She spent months of every year in Athens and at her home on Sérifos in the Cyclades. Her paintings reflect both continents. She was signed with Zygos Gallery in Athens and she has exhibited widely in New York, Chicago, Mexico City, Munich, Prague and Greece.
MAYA BARNSTONE:
“Born in Washington State, I spent the first 14 years of my life in the US, travelling to spend my three-month summer vacation in Greece with my dad’s side of the family. I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from my summers in Greece. My Yiayia, Helle Tzalopoulou-Barnstone, who lived to be 100 years old and grew up in Athens, painted her entire life. When I visited Greece, we would often paint together. In 2012, the day after my fourteenth birthday, my parents, brother and I moved to Sydney, Australia where I enrolled in Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. There, I studied dance and drama and in year 10 I discovered my own love for painting. I graduated high school in 2016 and went straight into a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the National Art School where I majored in painting. I’m now six years out of school and painting every day, both from my imagination and from reality”.
