Elena Papanikolakis lives in Sydney/Eora and works across painting, collage, and text. Drawing widely and without hierarchy, Papanikolakis unravels disparate source material to rebuild it anew; intertwining and making sense of personal, cultural, and found fragments, and traversing abstraction and figuration to at once reveal and conceal. Her practice is grounded by a curiosity in the components and remnants of the everyday, including the function of those that frame, document, describe and imagine, and their narrative, poetic, and material potential.

Ranging from snippets of memories, thoughts, and feelings; to artefacts, literature, and the natural world, Papanikolakis uses observation and imagination to explore multiple lines of inquiry; hinting at possible interpretations whilst encouraging the viewer to engage in the act of looking. Concerned with materiality, her work often retains evidence of the artist’s hand via handling marks, cut/torn edges, and irregularly shaped canvases.

Papanikolakis is represented in Melbourne/Naarm, Australia by ReadingRoom.

Contact: elena.papanikolakis@gmail.com

Elena Papanikolakis in her studio, 2024.