Ladies Purses by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva
From 29 May until 30 July, the Maker’s Cabinets in the Brighton Museum shop will host a number of small pieces by a local artist, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva.
Hadzi-Vasileva creates ambitious sculptural works and site-specific installations. She was born in Macedonia, and now lives and works in Brighton. Her work has been extensively commissioned and exhibited nationally and internationally. Elpida works with materials that are unusual, precious, ordinary and ephemeral, from organic materials and foodstuffs to gold leaf.
Hadzi-Vasileva graduated from Glasgow School of Art with first class honours, BA in Sculpture in 1996 and obtained an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London in 1998.
Recent commission include: St Bede’s Catholic College, commission as part of Bristol’s Building Schools for the Future program; Southgate Project, Bath; Public Room, Skopje, Macedonia; Spitalfields Sculpture Prize, Allen & Overy, London; Motectum, Gloucester Cathedral.
Exhibitions include: Pied a Terre, a Two Michelin Star restaurant in London; ‘Compulsive, Obsessive, Repetitive’, Towner Contemporary Art Museum, Eastbourne; ‘me, you & them’ at the 51st Venice Biennale; ‘Butterflies in the Stomach’ at L’H du Siege, France; ‘Time Stands Still’ at Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin.
She has taken part in a number of European residency programmes including ArtSway, Gloucester Cathedral, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Berwick Gymnasium Fellowship.
Hadzi-Vasileva aims to develop works which resonate with the particular place, both inside and out. This stimulates her to develop new methods using unusual materials which are linked to the specific environment (e.g. butter, fish skins, chicken skins, rice, trees, fir cones, watercress etc.).
Underlying all of Hadzi-Vasileva’s practice is an interest in exposing that which is not normally encountered. This concern with light, darkness, colour, texture and smell has produced a series of works that explore their symbolic nature and intimacy whilst also attempting to expose the importance of the material to its place.
In exploring these un-encountered spaces or places Hadzi-Vasileva aims for a resonance with fable or fairly story, a suggestion of promised Arcadias or Utopias which are unattainable, hoping to encourage a sublime experience for the visitor.
The work exhibited here is a special opportunity for Brighton residents and visitors to purchase unique pieces that have been carefully developed and are hand made by the artist.
Hadzi-Vasileva is also showing work at the Royal Academy Summer Show in London from 4 June – 12 August 2012
Please enquire at the Museum shop or contact the artist direct at
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