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The acclaimed Greek painter explores woman’s identity through a multileveled visual art universe, liberating her female figures from the viewer’s judgemental gaze.

Stella Kapezanou

Ode to woman’s nature

Text: Evi Kallini
Stella Kapezanou

Art for me is a means of communicating with people, a way to narrate stories and explore the human psyche. Ever since I was a child, I felt an intense need to express myself creatively, and painting offered me the compass to return to my center of gravity and put my thoughts in order.

Stella Kapezanou recalls herself painting right from an early age. Her mother was a painter, and she grew up surrounded by paint tubes, canvases and oil paint odours. Painting had always been there, like a natural extension of herself. She initially studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts before pursuing post-graduate studies with a scholarship abroad. While in London, she received the Sir Frank Bowling scholarship, which brought her in contact with artists and academics on an international level. She went on to obtain the Fulbright Art Scholarship, and, as she admits, “these defining experiences and acquaintances shaped my practice and the way I see myself as an artist.”

Before consolidating herself as a visual artist, Stella had gained wide recognition through her stint in modeling. As she recounts, “it was a chapter of my life that had everything to do with image, promo and marketing, but it did not reflect who I truly am, it was just the need of a seventeen-year-old girl to earn some money. Painting has always been there, a personal need and passion, and when I decided to devote myself to it, I felt like returning home. It was a transition that filled me with a sense of fulfillment and cause.”

Her impressive and daring frames, endowed with vivid colours, immediately capture one’s glance, however “there’s much more than what meets the eye” in her paintings. Her philosophy as a visual artist is based on the observation of human nature, the complexity of emotions and relations, whereas the thematic axes that stir her interest involve the concepts of identity, autonomy and dominance, especially through the exploration of womanhood. “I attempt to portray dynamic and independent women, liberated from the viewer’s judgemental gaze,” she explains.

For Stella, the woman form is a two-fold symbol of power and vulnerability. Intense colors and motifs echo the boldness, the contradictions and the intricacy found in the art of painting. As to what inspires her, here’s what she has to say: “Life itself, I observe relations, contradictory ‘normalities’, social conventions. I also draw inspiration from the myths and stories that unearth the perplexing confluences of human existence. My experience in New Mexico, where I came into contact with the cultural traits of the indigenous communities, has added new levels in my thematology.”

One of her more recent works was the creation of the 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s visual identity, which conversed with the Festival’s grand tribute titled “We, the Monster”. The strange and mysterious creatures featured are based on her work Corn Maidens (2024), in which she sought to depict intercultural symbols, forging a visual art language where mythologies and psychological references are intertwined in a dance-ode to the divine woman power, but also to Mother Nature, unraveling her two-fold identity as a source of creation (nutritious corn) and destruction (fire). This painted scene brings together the “maidens” who devote their youth to praying for the new yield in accordance with the indigenous traditions of the American natives, featuring the corn as a life-bearing fruit used in ritual ceremonies, the blood as a signal of pain and of the beginning of a new cycle of life, the crows as symbols of the spirit, messengers between different dimensions and ambivalent protectors against evil (just like black cats). Her female “monsters” are engulfed in flames, amidst a hellish party, radiant and lustful at once, finally given, in the year 2024, the chance and the liberty to indulge in pleasure.

Art for me is a means of communicating with people, a way to narrate stories and explore the human psyche. Ever since I was a child, I felt an intense need to express myself creatively, and painting offered me the compass to return to my center of gravity and put my thoughts in order.

Stella Kapezanou

As she confesses, the assignment of the 65th TIFF’s visual identity is one of the most pivotal chapters of her career so far, alongside the trip to New Mexico as a Fulbright scholar, “a journey nothing less than a treasure of knowledge and exchange,” as she mentions. Her getting in touch with the locals, and especially with the communities of native Americans, incited her to see life and art through a different prism. In her own words: “What I hold on to is the value of cultural exchange and how different civilizations can become integrated in my art. Moreover, being named a Fulbrighter is a title that offers lifelong ties with the program and the insertion in a worldwide network of academics and professionals.”

She is currently exploring the darkest dimensions of femininity, which often remain hidden. Her goal, through a series of paintings and ceramics, is to touch upon issues such as fragility, desire and control, triggering the feeling of discomfiture attached to the violation of social rules. “This way, I attempt to unveil unseen aspects of the self and bring forth femininity not as a passive notion, but as a force that defies expectations and reveals its multifarious nature, making use of its contradictions as empowering and self-definition tools.”

Her favorite motto is no other than “I don’t go with the flow, I am the flow”: “To me, this phrase expressed my need to be genuine and free both in art and in life. I don’t just follow predetermined paths and expectations, as I strive to find and shape my own route. My art is a constant flow of ideas and emotions that highlight my need for autonomy, without abiding by outer imperatives or conventions.”

The artist’ CV

Stella Kapezanou is a visual artist based in Athens, Greece. She studied Painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts where she received an honorary scholarship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) for achieving first place in the admission examinations. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Chelsea College of Arts, London, UK, where she studied under a fully funded, double scholarship from Motor Oil Hellas and the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship. She is the recipient of the Fulbright Foundation Artistic Scholarship 2024 for the international artist residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico, USA. Her more recent works delve into the concept of sovereignty as a power emanating from the female body, further developing the research around issues of gender, bodily autonomy, and self-determination that characterizes her work. She has been awarded the Clyde & Co Emerging Star Award, as well as the Cass Art Prize. 

She has participated as an artist-in-residence in renowned institutions and residency programs such as CARV Residency, Cyprus (2023), iAR Residency, Istanbul (2020), AucArt LAB Residency, London (2019), Goethe-Institut Bonn, Cologne and Berlin (2014) etc. She has presented her work internationally in solo exhibitions, the most recent being Corn Maidens, The Opening Gallery, New York (2024). Finally, group shows include Unapologetic WomXn, Ross Sutton Gallery, Venice, Italy (2024); Sunburn, Studio West Gallery, London, UK (2023); Stigma, Dromokaitio Psychiatric Hospital of Athens, GR (2023); Now Women, Fougaro, Nafplio, GR (2023); Contemporary Now, The Edit Gallery, Nicosia, CY (2022); Lusus Naturae, BcmA Gallery, Berlin, DE (2021); iAR Project, Akaretler Gallery, Istanbul, TR (2020); Love is a Dog from Hell, Frissiras Museum, Athens, GR (2019).

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