Roula Partheniou
Artist Statement
Roula Partheniou’s largely sculptural practice centres on an exploration of the replica and how the re-making of a familiar object can trigger a shift in perspective and perception. Making use of visual similes, material puns, colour cues, trompe l’oeil, and the double-take, she draws an alternate logic from commonplace materials.
Flat is a replica of a wholesale egg tray, meticulously rendered in handmade paper. A play on both words and material, this editioned work explores the transference of value when rendering mass-produced items with painstaking care. Concerned with replicating not only the object but also its material composition, the work is a meditation on the underlying complexity of seemingly simple materials and is the result of an elaborate (and somewhat absurd) exercise in counterfeiting.
As a framed wall work, Flat alternates between readings, alluding to both to the egg carton’s alternate use as soundproofing material, while also detaching the object from its function, foregrounding the modular elegance of the prosaic form.
Roula Partheniou, Flat, cotton and hemp cast paper, 11.5 x 11.5 x 1.5 inches each, variable edition of 12, Courtesy of MKG127, Toronto
Bio
Roula Partheniou has exhibited across Canada and internationally, most recently at Tanya Bonakdar (New York), Oakville Galleries, UWAG (Waterloo), Contemporary Calgary, MKG127 (Toronto), Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran (Montreal), Wil Aballe Art Projects (Vancouver), Owens Art Gallery (Sackville), Art Gallery of Peterborough, The Dunlop (Regina) and The Art Museum at the University of Toronto. A forthcoming monograph on the artist’s work will be out in early 2017, published by Blackdog Publications, UK.
Her works are held in numerous private and corporate collections including the Bank of Montreal, TD Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, MunichRe, Musée d’art contemporain, the Art Museum and Blackwood Gallery collections at the University of Toronto, and the National Gallery Library and Archives. She lives in Toronto and is represented by MKG127.
