No Longer Available

NIKI ELEFTHERIADI

Born in 1954 on the Greek island of Lesbos, Niki was surrounded by art – her father was an artist, and her favourite uncle edited the legendary magazine Cahiers des Arts. She studied interior and graphic design in Athens, and then went to France to study painting at the Paris Vlll University.

Yet Niki’s work does undeniably have a naïve style, but it’s a deliberate technique she uses to express the old-fashioned, nostalgic quality of the scenery and clothing, derived from distant memories of island life. Unlike most artists she resists being influenced by the work of others, hence the strongly individualistic style that reminds one of a tapestry, with its rhythmic compositions, gently harmonizing with softly shadowed areas of colour.

Representational accuracy is less important than re-capturing the atmosphere of her happy, fulfilled childhood. Niki depicts ordinary everyday moments, in the manner of a child asked to draw a picture of what it did that day: I went for a walk with my friend, looked out of the window, picked flowers, ate fruit, wore my virginal white dress. She gazes through windows, becoming the eyes of the house, looking out at the world, and looking into the interior.

Now, brush stroke by tiny brush stroke, Niki re-stitches her life; the threads emerge from the canvas like hair from pores in the skin. The thin delicately applied oil paint of the landscapes express enjoyment of the serene simplicity of life as it was in her childhood, before the tourists arrived, far from the tumult of the city. There is the bitter sweet taste of nostalgia; with a hint that perhaps tomorrow is when paradise can be regained.

Public Collections

Vorre Contemporary Art Museum, Athens
National Gallery, Athens Agricultural Bank of Greece, Athens
Alpha Bank Collection, Athens
Teloglio Foundation, Salonika
Municipal Gallery, Mytillini
Max Fourny Museum, Paris