STATEMENT

All of my practice is constructed from free associations between nature and culture, past, present and fantasy. My sculptures are composed from a personal language of organically and industrial inspired forms that I use to convey energy and emotions. Like the flux of the natural and technological world, my sculptures are the product of evolution, mutation, natural selection, and migration in symbiosis with the simple utilitarian objects and machines that are part of everyday life. I conceive my “City Dwellers” as members of a hybrid bio-industrial race that is once familiar and alien. They are futuristic portents, evocative of beings that could exist in the not-so-distant future if technology conquers humanity. But they are also nostalgic, reminiscent of the simple tools of the past. The result is purposely ambiguous to enable them to speak personally to all viewers regardless of age and culture. The “City Dwellers” have the humor and whimsy of cartoon figures or toys. But they have a dark side as well. Open to individual interpretation wherever they reside, I intend them to possess the inscrutability and metaphysical power of totems or idols.

BIO

Μark Hadjipateras was born and raised in London. He studied at St. Martins School of Art in London and the John Moores University in Liverpool. From 1982 to 2002 he lived and worked in New York City and now lives in Athens.

His work includes painting, photography, printing and sculpture. He has done site-specific installations in galleries and public spaces, in Europe and the U.S., such as the 28th Street station of the Broadway line of the MTA NYC Metro, the Thessaloniki New Waterfront and the Sofitel at Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos.

The artist has had more than forty solo exhibitions and 120 group exhibitions in Greece, Europe, USA, UAE, and Japan. He has held retrospective exhibitions in 2007 at the Museum of Modern Greek Art (Rhodes), in 2008 at the Municipal Gallery of Athens, in 2011 at the Hellenic Foundation of Culture in Berlin, and in 2014 at the Fougaro Art Gallery, Nafplio, Greece. Three monographs on his work have also been published in 2003, 2008 and 2024. For the past twenty years, he has been working steadily with a.antonopoulou.art gallery, where he has held several solo exhibitions.

His works are in important public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art MOMus, the National Museum of Contemporary Art EMST, the Athens Municipality, the Thessaloniki Municipality, the Basil & Elize Goulandris Foundation, the Dakis Joannou collection, Gerovassiliou Winery, Ernst & Young Services SA and others.