The mirror was broken - Alexandra Benaki
Braggart Contemporary Gallery presents the solo exhibition of the artist Alexandra Benaki, curated by Yannis Mitrou, from 09 May to 02 June 2025, at art box Papakiriazi 55 & Skarlatou Soutsou in Larissa.
I live-write-live to the edge of a hopeless appearance of myself living a shattered present. My "mirror" as I-other and sending thousands of messages to my psychic hinterland. So Alexandra Benaki's painting with the immediacy of the drawing combined with the colour dynamics defines alterity as the fragmentary reflection of a truth. That the artist must "shatter" his narcissistic image and indulge in the simplicity of a bodily experience by speculating on its existence as a living form. That which emerges from his painted gesture. It is the need and especially in synchronicity to turn the gaze to the simplicity and depth of the speculation that painting treats as an extension of Being. Therefore, beyond its methodical aspect, the artist's sincere position is required, which is reflected in the image he creates. The Benaki without the embarrassment of the embellished aspect of the work to be exhibited becomes the medium itself, the "broken mirror" in which we face the multiple of trauma and the "passages" from childhood to other "eras" and in the end the return to childhood again. Because the "mirror" has always been "broken".
The conversation concerns four related works and a fifth one that provokes the counterpoint while at the same time, through its abstract geometric design and form, the psychic place of the author is revealed to us. The place of its own truth emerging from the harsh softness of the other four works.
Alexandra Benaki
Visual artist Alexandra Benaki graduated from the Art & Design Department of Kent University in 1996 and later studied Fine Art at Middlesex University, UK. Her thesis was purchased and belongs to the Frissiras Museum. Her works are in museums and private collections in Greece, Europe and Dubai. She usually works with pastels, wood crayons, and pencil.
She likes to intervene in public spaces. In recent years she has made remarkable creations in various public spaces.
Alexandra Benaki infront of her painting in Braggart Gallery
In July 2023, she undertook and created an original wall art creation on the fourth floor of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens, entitled "The Whole".
In 2023, in collaboration with Thanasis Lalas, he created six wall paintings entitled "We are all different, we are all one" in an interior space of the School of Philosophy at EKPA.
In 2024 at the Chania Museum in a tribute to Maria Callas, he presented a painted portrait of the great Diva.
Alexandra Benaki infront of her painting in Braggart Gallery
