b. 1986
Athena Anastasiou creates elaborate compositions that blend realism, abstraction, traditional oil painting techniques, and textile weaving. Textile threads become organic parts of the canvas and often explode from the usual rectangular picture frame into multidimensional mixed-media installations.
Thematically, her works address deep questions of Earth’s chances for regeneration and its dwindling resources, while expressing a childlike wonder at the beauty and complexity of this world.
Nature and children play an important role in Anastasiou’s oeuvre. The artist often uses overlayed images from children’s books to emphasize storytelling, and what she calls the evolutionary timeline between mother and child in regard to the survival of our planet.
The subject of mythology is another important element of Anastasiou’s works. Her paintings are mystical and otherworldly, always portraying a feeling of magic and a sense of nature being alive and nurturing humans despite all their shortcomings.
Athena Anastasiou got her BA in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martin, London, in 2009, and she studied painting at the New York Academy of Art (Continuing Studies) in 2020. She participated in numerous art exhibitions in London and around the UK.