Past, present, future. The hand—reveals life lines, tracing a lineage, back to an ancient time. Old gods, new names. Fragments remain. A copy of a copy of a copy. Through hands, pass an exchange; between transformation and destruction. The snake chases its own tail, swallows it and forms an endless cycle. From dust a civilization rises, then falls, to ruins. Chaos reigns but the cycles remain. The end has no end.

 

In her most recent body of work “the end has no end” Kouroumalos explores the representation of myth in the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome, with a specific focus on deities and objects from funerary and mystic rituals. She takes a free associative approach to make connections between various modes of transformation, through collected source material from archaeological museums and daily life observed throughout Greece and Italy. She utilizes the imagery to reimagine new mythologies; reinterpreting the adoption, transference and hybridity evident through both cultures art and artifacts.

 

BIO

Peggy Kouroumalos is an artist from Toronto, Ontario currently living in Montreal, Quebec. She studied drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art + Design University and in 2015 graduated with an MFA at Concordia University. Trained mainly as an oil painter, she has recently switched her focus to watercolour and ceramics where she creates work composed of interchangeable elements; symbols and icons that create an ongoing open-ended narrative that explores recurring themes of death, desire and transformation. She has exhibited in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, has participated in international residencies and is a recipient of grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Conseil des art et des Lettres du Quebec.

 

The creation of this work was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.