Alex Anagnostou

Artists' Statement

“I believe that as artists, we have the capacity to change the way that people experience the world; to make the invisible visible and to find mystery in reality.
My own fascination with science, human nature and how we interact within our social and physical environment are the sources of my inspiration. Scientific glass lenses, satellite imagery and technology have allowed us to see and experience the world with new eyes. I use glass to capture and communicate the underlying interconnections, structures and energies that we cannot always see.
Sculpting with glass is a little dangerous, challenging, and always exhilarating. Working with glass, a supercooled liquid frozen in time, reminds me of the restless feeling one has when travelling to a foreign land for the first time. The dual nature of this material speaks as a metaphor for human nature with all of its contradictions and layers; fragility, strength, order, chaos, sharpness, malleability, transparency, opacity and an interior visual surface. I will continue my exploration beneath the surface.

BIO

Working with glass is both exhilarating and challenging for Alex Anagnostou. She alternates between glassblowing and sandcasting hot molten glass, as each process of creation inspires the other, and helps her work to develop in new and interesting ways. Both are represented at Circle Arts this season.
Alex’s sculptural work is inspired by how glass and lenses in particular, have expanded our ability to see on a microscopic and macroscopic level. Her sculptures explore issues of time, space, nature, energy and interconnectedness. In her “Filaments Series”, the web-like patterns of glass threads within her blown glass forms reflects light patterns within the universe and were originally inspired by brain synapse activity. Her sandcast glass reliefs explore issues of how we look upon the world, refers to personal dreams of travel and are map-like in appearance. They draw attention to issues of the environment and the hot glass, frozen in time, expresses the space that we often forget, between the earth and the ozone layer.
Alex is an artist in residence at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre glass studio where she sculpts cast and blown glass. She holds two fine art-related degrees from the University of Toronto 1988 (B.A. Fine Arts Management) and the University of Western Ontario 1994 (B.Ed. Visual Arts) and graduated with a silver medal in from the School of Crafts and Design Glass Program at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. She has operated her own gallery while living abroad in Thailand and has traveled extensively seeking to expand her view of the world and how individuals express themselves. She served as an art teacher and arts administrator and artist. Alex has received twelve awards for her glass sculpture including a scholarship from the Glass Art Society, a residency at Harbourfront Centre and three Hon. Mention awards at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition and two grants from the Ontario Arts Council. One of her greatest sources of spiritual renewal has been Manitoulin Island where she spends her summer vacation.
An internationally acclaimed artist, Alex’s work was selected by the British Crafts Council to exhibit at Collect 2008, held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, UK. She has shown several times at SOFA Chicago, an international exposition of fine sculptural objects. Alex's work is represented in galleries across Canada, the U.S. and in the U.K. and was in three TV movies filmed in Canada. Recently her glass artwork was acquired by the Government of Canada, the Canadiana State Fund Art Collection, Ministry of Culture in Saudi Arabia and is soon to be in the Glasmuseet collection in Denmark. In 2010 she completed an 18 foot cast glass permanent outdoor sculpture inspired by the Niagara Escarpment for the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Her “Seeding Clouds” piece was exhibited at the Craft Biennale in Korea and at the Vancouver Museum during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. She is delighted to be exhibiting at Circle Arts Gallery in Tobermory on the edge of the Escarpment.

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