Massive drawings by Brianna Angelakis are absorbing self-portraits, placing the artist among contorted shapes and forms. The graphite work impresses at any distance, and in a statement, the artist explains her pursuit in these portraits and her own state as being “transfixed by beauty, I remain stationary amid the nonsensical world. Through a metamorphosis, my past failures transform into elements of beauty, as I become a fantastical monument to my vexation, acting within the spectacle of the absurd.” She was last featured on HiFructose.com here.
“Placed upon my head as a crown for my unconscious, the natural lines, ridges, and edges within the crumpled paper determines the ultimate placement for my drawings, paintings, and still life textiles,” the artist says, in a statement. “Each element is drawn individually from life and placed through a system of collage. Combining pieces of my ripped, unraveled, cut, and crumpled drawings and paintings into singular compositions, I compose a nonsensical world where fruitless attempts become fragments of beauty.”
Angelakis is currently a MFA painting/drawing candidate at University of Florida in Gainesville. The works above are part of the artist’s thesis exhibition at the university, titled “Downside-Up.”
