Elli Antoniou

Elli Antoniou (b.1995, Birmingham, UK) is a London-based artist, who creates ‘metallic drawings’. Antoniou has devised a hybrid technique combining gestural drawing and industrial processes. She uses a range of abrasive tools to subtly alter the metallic surface, transforming its reflective and refractive properties to create metallic panels with ethereal imagery. This technique proposes scaleless fluid cosmoi in perpetual motion, where these ‘metallic drawings’ are activated by the environmental light. Her practice is a meditation on screens, delving into their profound influence on our perception of time and space. She explores the vanishing present and its nature as a moment of indefinite metamorphosis. Antoniou’s narratives mirror her view on the current digital age marked by semiotic inflation; when information and images melt into pure movement, morphing into a choreography of synthesis. As her sculptures continuously regenerate under the play of light, they become fictional screens for an unfolding parallel reality, whose world she is gradually shaping. Antoniou holds an MA Degree in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (2018-2020), with a scholarship from NEON Organisation for Culture and Development and a BA in Fine Art & History of Art from Goldsmiths University of London (2014-2017). She has been awarded the ARTWORKS 2022-23 Fellowship by Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Greece. She has participated at the Palazzo Monti residency programme (2023), Brescia, Italy and at the Roman Road studios programme, London, U.K. (2023). Her recent exhibitions include things fall apart; the centre cannot hold, Tabula Rasa Gallery (London, 2023); _overlapping moments of a slightly present, Saigon (solo, Athens, 2021); Halls of Mirrors, PLOP (London, 2023); *pinch* to zoom, Generation & Display (London, 2023); Warm Reflections On Black Ice, Saigon & Rosa Stern Space (Munich, 2023); Excursion II, The Split Gallery (London, 2023); Recursion I, The Split Gallery (London, 2023); Doomed Companions, Unsubstantial Shades, Hellenic Residence (London, 2022, Supported by NEON Organization for Culture and Development); Moon White Moth, Saigon & PTX (Athens, 2022); Back to Athens 9: No Apocalypse Now, Isaiah Mansion (Athens, 2022); THE DEEP END, Two Thirds (Athens, 2022). ...

Tabula Rasa Gallery is based in Beijing's 798 art district. Established in 2015, it aims to promote both Chinese and international contemporary artists through exhibitions, talks, research and publication. The gallery name is Latin for 'blank state'. In philosophical discourse, it refers to the idea that our knowledge comes from our experiences and education, all participants are born in a Tabula Rasa state. Tabula Rasa hopes that the exhibitions they present can subvert viewers’ preconceptions, creating conditions for fresh artistic experiments.