MATINA VOSSOU
Your Pain Is My Pain But Your Pleasure Isn’t Mine
The piece that I am submitting is part of my new and ongoing collection Postcards From A Postponed Posterity. They are all painted portraits on plain postcards (19×13 cm) using toothpicks and acrylics. Smaller size but same aesthetic and vision. Like any other typical postcard, these ones also carry a written message for a title; a verse, an introductory sentence or maybe a parable, for the better understanding of the facial expression and the situation that this person is in. The specific portrait was inspired from a black and white photograph which caught my eye immediately for its dark quality. It brought to my mind the idea of somebody very nervous, trying to hide his face from the world. It seems like he is watching from a distance jealously somebody special to him. But something really deep, a rejection or a denial, is eating him up inside.
Acrylics on paper postcard using toothpicks, 7.48×5.11 inches, 2022
Matina Vossou is a self-taught artist living in Athens, Greece. She uses acrylics and a toothpick, a technique which she learned by her father, who was a naïve painter. She paints faces like perfectly unfinished mosaics of emotions and ideas. The skin is depicted cracked and like is illuminated from the inside. She believes that every face is a journey and probably looking at them is going to be our longest, most adventurous and knowledgeable trip. Her most recent participations were in Onboards Biennale in Antwerp, Belgium, in Emerging Scene in Dubai, UAE, in Artbox, (Urbanside Gallery in Zurich, Tana Art Place in Venice, Swissartexpo, also in Zurich) and in Expo Metro in the collective artwork, Downtown Los Angeles. She is also included in the 2021 publication (yearbook) of the Gran Anuario Internacional de arte contemporáneo, edición Madrid and in ARTISTI ’22, Annuario Internazionale d’arte contemporanea, Art Now, Mondadori Store. She has exhibited her artworks in MADS Gallery in Milan. She has been featured in various art magazines. Except from painting, she also loves writing; her play The Nothing of People (a dystopian comedy) was published in Greek in 2018. You can see more of her artwork via Instagram, Saatchi Art, and Linktr.ee.
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