Maria Alexandrou | Sequence of Colour

Maria Alexandrou was born in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1990. She is a graduate of the University of Crete, Department of Applied Mathematics (March 15, 2013). 

 She is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts, Department of Visual and Applied Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, (July 26, 2018), majoring in painting, with professors Dimitris Zouroudis, Kyriakos Mortarakos and Yiannis Skyllogiannis. 

 She took part in several group exhibitions and since 2018 he lives and works in Cyprus. 

Group Exhibitions:

2022:

•  Winter group exhibition, 17/12/2021 – 7/01/2022, The O Gallery, Larnaca, Cyprus. 

2018:

• Dyed dreams still green, 17-20/5/2018, Platforms Project 2018, Exhibition space “Nikos Kessanlis”, ASKT, Athens 

2017:

• “Rolling stories”, 23-26/11/2017, Industrial Design Laboratory of SKT AUTH, 2nd ArtThessaloniki (rolling-stories.blogspot.com) 
•  Life after death a source of inspiration from antiquity to modern times, European Capital of Culture, Paphos 2017 
• ” White Noise.  Less White Noise”, 1/4 – 30/8/2017, Periodic Art Exhibition, Archaeological Museum of Pella 
•  Exhibition of the 1st Painting Workshop of the School of Fine Arts of Athens, ME AS WE ARE, (22/5 – 15/6/2017), French Institute of Thessaloniki 
• “Greek Artists’ trips”, Santorini 
•  “FADED DREAMS”, 30/5-10/6/2017, Art Exhibition, Vlassis art gallery, Thessaloniki 

2016:

• “Paintings without a Hero”, 16/11/2016 – 15/1/2017, Art Exhibition, Poeta, Thessaloniki 
•  World Philosophy Conference “The Philosophy of Aristotle”, Open Visual Intervention, 2/7, Ancient Stagera, Halkidiki 
• ” Visual dialogues with the city”, Visual Exhibition, 14/6 – 1/7, Ancient Archaeological Museum (Yeni Mosque), Thessaloniki 

2014:

• “Paraliart”, 13 – 14/6, Visual intervention in the public space, Thessaloniki Youth Cultural Capital of Europe 2014, Thessaloniki 

The thematic axes of the unit of her works revolves around the issue of creating visual space, with the use of geometric shapes and lines.  Their choice as a decisive formative factor is mainly due to her earlier training as a mathematician. 

 Applying mathematical and geometric properties to art, expressed in symbols, is an ancient practice.  It derives from a more general wisdom rooted in a kind of Pythagoreanism and religiosity. 

 In art, in modern sculpture, in architecture, in music, in technology and in general, mathematics has a dominant role. 

 A graduate of the School of Applied Mathematics, as well as the Department of Visual and Applied Arts, AUTH, during her studies in painting she pursues the possibility of combining mathematics in art. 

    Certain mathematical curves have the ability to evoke different emotions depending on the quantitative relationships and ratios they express.  They also convey the concept of order, rhythm and an inner harmony. 

 The geometric forms that she seeks to include in her visual research form such curved surfaces. The forms disappear and move into infinity.  The overlapping of the shapes as well as the quantitative and qualitative contrasts, cause the illusion of movement and depth.  The main idea is to create a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface, leaving what causes the work to the free viewing. 

       The choice of colour combinations is based on the personal aesthetics shaped by her studies and her individual path.  The plain colours without the existence of the tactile texture, were chosen in harmony with the rigour and rationality of mathematics. 

      Mathematical logic, composition, harmony, quantitative and qualitative contrasts, movement, depth, colour, material and aesthetics, are topics that distinguished Greek or international artists dealt with in the past. (Opi Zouni, Nausika  Pastra, Pantelis Xagoraris, Mondrian, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky) 

      The complexity of the composition, which seeks the illusion of space, requires a perfection in execution, as also the relationships between the shapes and the lines, either in terms of the area they occupy, or in terms of the brilliance or not of the contrasts, aims at the organized  action of expressive visual forces, where the shapes disappear in a dynamic game that hopes to convey a meaning corresponding to each viewing of the work.