Athena Xenakis
Athena Xenakis is a modern contemporary Australian artist, living creatively as Athena X. Athena X was born in Sydney Australia in 1975, daughter of Irene and George Xenakis. In 1984, her father - a hairdresser and creative luminary - relocated the family back to Athens, Greece.
Demonstrating significant artistic ability, Athena X won several amateur art prizes in Greece throughout her childhood and adolescence. She also excelled in theatrical arts and journalism in her school newspapers.
Athena X then studied visual arts and fashion design at ACTO Athens College and in 1993 took an apprenticeship under icon Greek fashion designer Vassilios Kostetsos 1. In 1997, Athena X decided to follow her dream and pursue art and returned to Australia. She was accepted into the National Art School in East Sydney with her first application. Athena X graduated from NAS in 2000 with a degree in sculpture.
Exhibition History
- 1994 "Fashion and Its Victims", group show, ACTO Athens Greece
- 1994 Finalist in Life Drawings, ACTO Athens Greece
- 1995 Life Drawings, Kiffisia Council, Athens Greece
- 1996 Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute Athens Greece
- 1997 Paintings and Drawings, Cell Block, National Art School, East Sydney Australia
- 2007 "Transitions", solo exhibition, Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, Australia
Athena X demonstrated her unique ability in a solo exhibition in Sydney Australia at Mary Place Gallery in Paddington in January 2007. The work exhibited was an accumulation of three years of painting, titled "Transitions". The exhibition featured acrylic paintings on canvas. Consistent throughout her work was the recurrence of FACES symbolizing masks and humanity.
Athena X takes her inspiration on canvas from her inner being and spiritual self. Having Undergone past life regression processes, Athena X allows this inner conversation with higher self and previous incarnations to inspire her work and speak through her. Invoking the philosophy that "Learning consists of remembering previously acquired knowledge," Athena X frees her subconscious and begins in her present, allowing her work to take life and tell stories from a spiritual platform. Her work is evocative and transcends from the figurative to the abstract.
The sale of thirty-two pieces at the 2007 Mary Place Exhibition clearly indicate that passive observers found her brush-strokes and use of color and the whimsical innocence of her imagery appealing and comparing it to Australian painter Tony Tuckson. Her most noted of the first sale was a 2mX2m canvas fetching $10,000 AU.
Athena X will exhibit both canvas and installations in Australia in 2008.