Phases of Venus, 2022 © Ariana Papademetropoulos.
Photo by Argenis Apolinario; Courtesy the artist and Vito Schnabel Gallery.
Papademetropoulos’ paintings transport the onlooker into another realm: the subconscious, the sacred, the magic. Her immersive landscapes shimmer with an opalescent fizz, as if some kind of transformative alchemy is taking place on the canvas. Vast exterior landscapes of the natural world are often juxtaposed with interior worlds like a conch shell or the decor of a seemingly abandoned home. Papademetropoulos believes an enclosed space can be a site or portal for transformation. It is within the solitary darkness of an oyster shell that a pearl is born.