ELENA V. SMYRNIOTIS is a printmaker and installation artist with a background in architecture. 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.
See Smyrntiotis's most recent work, Labyrinth, below.
Labyrinth is about the journey, as much as about destination. Labyrinth is surreal in many ways, and many things are not what they seem. Labyrinth is a place full of intricate passages, blind alleys, and shadows; they slow you down, as you move through tunnels and chambers, and educe meditation when you reach ending point. It is not a scary place if you learn the pattern as the artist, who lives to explore Labyrinth.
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