Antonia Hajicosta

Email: antonella.hc@hotmail.com

Telephone number Cyprus: 0035799889149

Telephone number UK: 00447928688415

Education

2006-2009

Fine art (BA Hons) De Montfort University Leicester
Self-directed projects:
2006-2007 1st year “smokers”
2007-2008 2nd year “mare nostrum”
2008-2009 3rd year “catastrophe”

1999 – 2006

Grammar School Nicosia, Cyprus
7 year High School Education

Education at AIGAIA School of art and design:
GSE O Level in art and design A+
GSE A Level in art and design A+

Awarded for the first place in A Level GSE examinations of University of Cambridge in Cyprus, by the British Council.

Statement

Antonia's work is based on recent catastrophic events that happen around the world. Antonia works through photographic images that show mostly the victims of these disasters. Her target is to evoke feelings and protest against what is happening. Working mostly on small scale canvases has given me the chance to use quick brushstrokes from which her figures appear.
A main characteristic of her work is the coloured backgrounds of the paintings. In this way Antonia eliminates many details from the photographic images that She finds, while She presents only characteristics that evoke her subject and idea. Antonia uses all range of colours in her paintings, from vivid to muted colourations, depending on each painting and the idea Antonia wants to represent. In this way, She create an irony that sometimes confuses the viewer about the story of each painting.  In some of her paintings, Antonia leaves blank spaces that create a dramatic feeling, while this balances the whole outcome.
Antonia has been looking also into artists like Peter Doig, for his use of photographic images as a source, his compositions and his handling of paint and colour. Another artist is Robert Longo with his massive drawings that represent catastrophic events, in a realistic manner, that seem as photographic images.  Ben Grasso presents imaginary catastrophic events, in a realistic manner, which confuses the viewer as to whether they are real or not. In addition, I have been looking at the handling of paint and dark colours of Fransisco Goya who was a master painter in representing  historic catastrophic events, like  his painting  “The Third of May 1808”,which is considered a highly romantic painting, even though it was characterized by Greenberg as modern.