![ANASTASIA PELIAS One Divine Hammer [alternate view], 1996](https://img.artlogic.net/w_472,h_472,c_limit/exhibit-e/5493565707a72c7342335013/1823d4fcdbb51377e1dd8ae1c5330759.jpeg)
![ANASTASIA PELIAS One Divine Hammer [alternate view], 1996](https://img.artlogic.net/w_472,h_472,c_limit/exhibit-e/5493565707a72c7342335013/3ad27fefca01677a769109658959f042.jpeg)
ANASTASIA PELIAS
Across Space and Time (the Divine Feminine)new paintings and sculpture
July 19 – August 26, 2023
PULL QUOTE
The ancient Greek concept about destiny and fate and the impossibility of subverting fate drive this work, as well as the concept of finding purpose in a turbulent and complicated world.
Biography
A N A S T A S I A P E L I A S | | | biography
[lives & works - New Orleans, LA ::: b.1959 New Orleans, LA]
ANASTASIA PELIAS was born in New Orleans, LA to a Greek immigrant mother and a first generation Greek-American father. She received her BFA from the Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1981, and her MFA from the University of New Orleans in 1996. Pelias has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and museums nationwide, and has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artnet news, ArtDaily, Forbes, Pelican Bomb and New Orleans Art Review. Her work appears in the permanent collections at the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans; the Mobile Museum of Art, Alabama; Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, and in private and public collections worldwide.
Pelias’ work has been featured in notable exhibitions including The Whole Drum Will Sound: Women in Southern Abstraction at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in 2018, and Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women in Louisiana at Newcomb Art Museum in 2019 and at the Ford Foundation Gallery in 2020. In 2018, Pelias was commissioned by the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX to to make a site-specific sculpture and painting installation. In 2020, Pelias was commissioned by the Domain Companies to create a 54 foot mural at the Odeon Building in New Orleans. In 2020 she was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist Residency. Pelias was a selected artist in the Prospect.5 Triennial, 2021-22, where she exhibited a site-specific multi sensory installation involving sculpture, a painted landscape, sound and scent.
STATEMENT
I am a multidisciplinary artist – my bodies of work include oil paintings on canvas, works on paper, sculpture, video and multi-dimensional site-specific and site-responsive installations. The human-size scale of my interactions with diverse media allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the work as opposed to simply being an observer. I consider all of my work to be painting, even though it may not look like painting.
In my studio practice, I unapologetically embrace subjects of love, sex, death, destiny, and the human experience - in particular the female experience. The dual cultural identity of both my native New Orleans and my ancestral roots in Skopelos Greece profoundly inform my work. I am engaged with Greek rituals and ideas about fate and destiny as well as the rich pageantry of New Orleans culture. Deep ancestral connections that are ever-present, that resonate even if they are not always understood, find their way into my work.
While I am working, I enter a space where I avoid conscious thought. I embrace a process that is both intuitive and intentional. I am drawn to content and meaning, abstraction and gesture, and the materiality of paint. Color and its emotional power is a critical component in all of my work. I believe in the power of painting and its ability to evoke a visceral response from the viewer, and to change how people see the world. I want to create work that is full of emotion and visual pleasure.
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATION
1996 MFA, Painting, University of New Orleans
1981 BFA, Painting, Newcomb College of Tulane University
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, LA
Thomas and Dathel Coleman, St. Rose, LA
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
The Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, New York, NY
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Ambassador Alexandra Papadopoulou, Athens, Greece
Iberia Bank Collection, Lafayette, Metairie and Shreveport, LA
Synovate Marketing, London, England, UK
The Catahoula Hotel, New Orleans, LA
Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Commack, NY
IMTT Sculpture Park, St. Rose, LA
Four Seasons, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Anastasia Screamed in Vain (painting on loss, longing and love), Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2019 Destiny is Destiny (sing my song), Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018-9 mama, a site-specific installation, McNay Art Museum, commissioned by the museum, San Antonio, TX
2017 Sisters, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2015 Reckless Daughter (in real time), Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX
2013 Ritual Devotion (Two), Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA (catalogue)
Ritual Devotion, Zoya Tommy Contemporary, Houston, TX (catalogue)
2011 Washed (to the sea and other waters), Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2009 Automatics, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2004 Linked: New Paintings, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001 700 ft. square, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021-22 Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, curated by Diana Nawi and Naima Keith, New Orleans, LA
2020 INSPIRATION IN ISOLATION: Works From Cancelled And Postponed Exhibitions + Works Made In
Quarantine, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, Ford Foundation Gallery/ Ford Foundation, curated by
Monica-Ramirez-Montagut, New York, NY
2019 Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, curated by
Monica Ramirez-Montagut and Laura Blereau, New Orleans, LA
Vessels of Mercy, Vessels of Wrath, Barrister’s Gallery, curated by Serge Loncar, New Orleans, LA
The Whole Drum Will Sound, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Constructing the Break, Whitney White Linen Night, Contemporary Arts Center, curated
by Allison M. Glenn, New Orleans, LA
SITE-SPECIFIC + SITE-RESPONSIVE INSTALLATIONS
2020 The Odeon Mural, Domain Companies commission, The Odeon at South Market, New Orleans, LA
2019 Etsi Einai I Zoë (So is Life), supported by the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
2018-19 mama, McNay Art Museum, commissioned by the museum, San Antonio, TX
2016 Send the power through the foam, Mermaid Lounge Reunion, The Truck Farm, New Orleans, LA
2015 Poydras Painting, Crevasse 22, Prospect.3 Satellite, Poydras, LA
SELECTED RESIDENCIES + AWARDS + GRANTS
2021 The Mellon Foundation Monuments Project Grant supporting Prospect.5 commission
2020-21 Artist in Residence, The Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA
2019 Artist in Residence, The Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
Visiting Artist, University of Colorado Denver
2018 Artist in Residence, The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA
2017 Selected Artist, New American Paintings, No. 130, 2017, The Open Studio Press, curated
by Veronica Roberts
