Dimitra Skandali

I grew up in Alyki of Paros, Greece.

I graduated from Athens School of Fine Arts in 2010 and went to the US to pursue my MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2011, where I graduated in 2013. Since then, I live and work in both lands. I carry my island with me everywhere and it shapes the way I see the world. Living in between, I am exploring ways of connection and dialogue between the two places and their ways. This may be a dialogue between the East and the West, or an attempt to connect tradition with innovation, or emotion with rationality. With the materials I am using I create installations, emphasizing on the humbleness and simplicity of the materials as a means of expressing the way I experience each land. They are characterized by fragility, ephemerality and mortality while at the same time conveying a sense of strength and interdependency.

With this exhibition at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts on Paros, Greece, the first one after I left the island in 2011, I wish to thank the place where I grew up and the Aegean Center, which was the starting point of my education as an artist –and also to contribute in the celebration of its 50th anniversary -. My aim is to show how much the way I grew up, tradition and Greece’s rich history have inspired me in developing my art practice. I have named this show “Ties”: Both metaphorically and literarily, as most of my pieces are created knot-by-knot. My experience abroad, despite the difficulties of survival in a city like San Francisco has been enriched by the diversity of cultures and the love and the support of many individuals as well as the wider artist community of the Bay Area. I work with a variety of materials but my attention is mostly focused on sea grass washed out at the Pacific coasts. All this has lead me to directions that I would have never imagined, but at the same time brought me closer to my roots, no matter the distance.