Feature Articles

November Issue 2002

The Gallery in Beau fort, SC, Features Work by Olga Stamatiou

An exhibition entitled The Blackbirds of Beaufort County, featuring works by Olga Stamatiou, opens Nov. 16 at The Gallery in downtown Beaufort, SC. The exhibit will continue through Dec. 5, 2002.

Just one look at international artist Olga Stamatiou's blackbirds and one can sense their haunting and mysterious qualities. Some are graceful and some are lumbering, others alert and sprightly. The are set against rich mosaic colorful backgrounds with bold brush work.

Stamatiou will have 25 new works in oil depicting blackbirds at their most animated and quirky moments. Titles of paintings such as The Ballerina or the punk looking fledgling called Bee-Idyl, gives you an idea of what's in store for the keen spotter.

These Blackbirds are from a "mini series" of her larger Blackbird group which she has in progress, with paintings 5 x 6 feet in size and several that will span 8 x 16 feet, to include a multi media exhibit with 3D animations and a complete sound track, all about Blackbirds. With as many as 40 paintings for the show, it will include content about their quirks and myths to be all blended together.

Blackbirds have shown up in Stamatiou's work for more than 30 years, as symbolic gestures. Now they are the main event. New to the area, Stamatiou and her husband recently moved to Beaufort county from Greece, where she has lived a good portion of her life.

Stamatiou graduated with a masters from Boston University, The School of Fine Arts, in 1984. She has exhibited in the US and abroad, and has recently been selected to participate in the Florence 2003 Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea Città di Firenze - Italia. "For me, art training was vital," says Stamatiou. "I think it's extremely important to understand the fundamentals of drawing, composition and color. When you look at a painting, you want to understand the underlying form and structure. It has to have this, in order to hold up; otherwise, it'll fall apart. So it should be compositionally organized and balanced. Each subject - even an inanimate one - has a 'soul,' that must be projected."

She continues, "I've always liked figurative painting, I can't go completely abstract, although with this present work, I'm trying to use larger shapes and forms, and be more minimal - to focus more on one thing, so it becomes very dynamic. My subject matter hasn't really changed; I just approach it in a different way. For example, I've always done weird animals with strange shapes - cows, bulls, cats and birds. For me, blackbirds have a very sculptural feel, I have a special affinity for them."

Stamatiou is enthusiastic about further developing the "purity, clarity and silence" that she feels is the main feature of her present work. "That's what I'm trying to find in my life," she explains, "and I think it's reflected in my paintings." A dynamic personality packaged into a thin-framed physique, Stamatiou's distinctive element in her work is the lyricism and rhythm of her colors, which she regards as her painting's primary expressive component. What intrigues her most is the process of painting. "It's that challenge that excites me," she says. "It doesn't matter if it's easy or difficult; it's a passion and I can't stop it. There's no ego when you're painting. It's gone. A painter has to love that solitude... and I do."

For more information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 843/470-9994, or contact the artist by email at (studiolga@aol.com).

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