Statement
Evagelia Hagikalfa is a collage and an installation artist from Greece, living and working in Portsmouth, UK. The primary influences of her work are cultural and philosophical with a focus on the human condition through memory, recollection and storytelling. Her installations consist mainly of pre-owned objects assembled and constructed into intricate pieces with evocative visual messages. Evagelia treats objects as mediums, sequentially giving them a new life and purpose while they preserve parts of their own history.
Evagelia often draws inspiration from her cultural background and more specifically mythology, philosophy and poetry. Her collage work is characterised by the synergy of word an image and the simplicity of composition. Contrary to the collages, her installation work is complex and intimate designed to mimic memory in its physical dimension and simultaneously to evoke recollection by drawing attention to the detail and discovery as a symbolic process to introspection. She creates 3-dimensional worlds with photographic slides, viewed only though magnifying and camera lenses. These memory worlds are constructed narratives that act as an artificial mnemonic recollection attempting to evoke a sense of nostalgia and a vehicle to further remembering and storytelling.
Evagelia holds a MA in Liberal Arts from the University of Winchester with a focus in Philosophy and was a finalist for the John Ruskin Award “Agent of Change” in 2019. Her installations have been exhibited in the international Photo festivals of InCadaques (Spain), in 2018 and Revela’t in 2019 and has participated in group exhibitions Paris, Lyon and across UK.
CV
Education
2017-20 MA Modern Liberal Arts-Philosophy, University of Winchester
2005-06 GTP Teacher Training, University of Chichester
1999-02 Ba (Hons) Surface Pattern Design, Swansea Institute of Higher Education
1998-99 Diploma Foundation Course in Art and Design, Swansea Institute of Higher Education
Exhibitions
2024 PAX, ASPEX Gallery, Portsmouth, UK
2024 Newhaven Opencall2024, BN9 Studio, Newhaven, UK
2023 The Lost Art of Staring into Fires, Westdowns Gallery, Winchester, UK
2022 Memory Imaginaries, We Shine Festival, Portsmouth, UK
2019 Agent of Change, The Ruskin Prize, Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK- Finalist
2019 Revela’t 2019, International Photo Festival, Barcelona, Spain
2019 Heimweh, Art Space, Portsmouth, UK
2019 A Work of Art, Biscuit Factory, London, UK
2018 La Cite Fertile, Paris, France
2018 InCadaques, International Photo Festival, Cadaques, Spain
2018 Rural Arts, North Yorkshire, UK
2018 Microcosmos, Playdead, Portsmouth, UK - Solo
2017 Luminosity, Highlights Contemporary Craft Tour, Cumbria, UK
2017 Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece - shortlisted
2017 Flux, Fringe Art Festival Bath, Bath, UK
2017 Fresh, Rural Arts, North Yorkshire, UK
2017 Patchworks, Taverne Gutenberg, Lyon, France
2017 Multiple Equation, Taverne Gutenberg, Lyon, France
2016 From one Story to Another, Coastguard Studio, Portsmouth, UK
2016 Our Worlds are Minds Apart, Coastguard Studio, Portsmouth, UK
2012 We Are One, Athens, Greece
2002 Fresh Perspectives, Brick House, London, UK
Residencies
2017 Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, UK
Professional Activities
Member Trustee of Art Space Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
Member of PAX, Portsmouth, UK
Member of Focus on Identity, International Group- www.focusonidentity.org
Associate artist, Aspex gallery, Portsmouth, UK
2016-2018 Member of DOUBLEONEFOUR Studio, Portsmouth, UK
2016-2017 Member of The Fire Monkey Collective, Hotwalls, Portsmouth, UK