Maria Fragoudaki was born in Athens in 1983. In her work, she engages in a variety of visual languages such as painting, sculpture, art installations, and performance, creating narratives that are brought to life using materials that include fabric, gypsum, and paint.
Her artistic career includes numerous solo and group shows across Europe, the United States and Japan, and many of her works are parts of private and corporate international collections.
Maria holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree of Science in Chemistry from the University of London, with a specialization in the physical properties of materials, and a Master’s degree in Management from the University of Bristol.
After her studies, she worked in London and New York, where she lived until 2018. She has completed residencies at the School of Visual Arts in New York and has worked alongside Donald Sheridan, master printer of Andy Warhol, as well as with Andrew Ginzel, an American artist known for his large-scale public art pieces and installations.
Statement
“My work explores the concept of Haptic Perception (Greek: haptós, haptikós /palpable, tangible) which relies on the forces experienced during touch and active exploration.
Through my work, I am exploring various materials that include fabric, gypsum, and paint and study their ability to produce a tactile experience. My Chemistry background help me interact with the materials in a different way. By understanding their properties and chemical composition, I manipulate and transform them, challenging our notion of reality.
My aim is to reveal Forms that are inherent to the objects, but hidden at first sight. The physical process of changing, exploring, expanding, and challenging the use of materials becomes an abstract process of exploring and understanding Ideas and materiality.”
