Irini Gonou
about
Born in Athens, Irini Gonou graduated from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and from École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris where she continued working for eleven years. She has shown her artwork in thirty solo exhibitions in Greece – Athens, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Naxos, Alexandroupoli – and abroad in Cyprus, France, Belgium, Germany, UK, USA and Norway Turkey and Egypt.
A typical element in her work is the cultural references of various origins, which she codifies and combines in her compositions. Her work often resembles souvenirs or religious offerings, and her personal idiom incorporates archetypal symbolisms in a contemporary visual and conceptual context. In her work, she uses wood, fabric, iron, wire, paper or string.
One special aspect in her work is her artistic approach to writing, with her three-dimensional collages often incorporating texts, poems and words. Individual letters are often treated as drawings, and texts as self-contained compositions.
She participated in several group exhibitions and art meetings in Greece and abroad.
Her artwork is included in many important public and private collections in Greece and abroad. She lives and works in Athens as a visual artist and teaches regular workshops at the Benaki Museum in Athens.
