Dispossessed

Elena V. Smyrniotis, Printmaking Fellow

June 3 — August 29, 2021

C-Space, CSPS Hall
1103 Third Street SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 

Opening Reception June 3, 2021, 6 to 8 p.m.
Open to the public. Free of charge.

For hundreds of thousands of years, ice has remained a permanent feature of our planet, until now. Irresistible and pristine bodies of ice are disappearing around the world due to rising temperatures.

The Dispossessed represents a surreal seascape of icebergs floating in the middle of a dark ocean. The icebergs are formed from layers, embodying sheets of compressed snow that fell thousands of years ago. Each layer holds the mystery that vanishes along with melting ice. The Dispossessed creates an atmosphere of nostalgia, longing, and melancholia for the disappearance of this primeval ice. The installation achieves this experience by merging myriad fields of practice; it unifies sculpture, architecture, light, and sound.

Elena V. Smyrniotis is a printmaker and installation artist with a background in architecture. She is the current Grant Wood Fellow in Printmaking at the University of Iowa. Her work explores utopian landscapes and their place in the collective imagination, with a particular focus on architecture, topography, and cartography. She received her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Notre Dame, her MA in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of Saint Francis, and her MA in Architecture and Engineering from the State Petroleum University (Ufa, Russia).

Her exhibition record includes shows at PINEA-LINEA DE COSTA (Rota, Spain), International Art and Design Exhibition in Selçuk University (Konya, Turkey), solo shows at Artlink Gallery (Fort Wayne, IN), and at the Snite Museum of Art (South Bend, IN), where she was awarded the Walter Beardsley Award in 2017.

Smyrniotis’s extensive international experiences include a Fellowship at the Rome Global Gateway (Rome, Italy); research with the Rome Capitoline Museum and the Hertziana Library and Geographical Society of Italy; teaching printmaking workshops at the Gems Metropolitan School (Dubai, OAE); and participation in workshops at the Painting School of Montmiral (France).

She taught printmaking and drawing at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Saint Francis. In 2019 ,she was a Visiting Artist at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Saint Francis. She was the founder and director of the Art and Architecture School for Children  (Ufa, Russia) and worked as an architect in St. Petersburg, Russia.