Lydia Moraitis : Here comes a candle
August 2 – August 30, 2023 at TM Gallery
Lydia Moraitis is an emerging London based artist, who works primarily in mixed media. Born in 2000, she spent her formative years in the Lake District, before studying at The Ruskin School of Art, from 2019-2022.
Featuring a selection of new works, Lydia Moraitis : Here comes a candle is her debut solo exhibition. The exhibition explores themes of youth, the consequences of choices, introspection and the awareness of mortality. It is a self-reflection on the stage of her life, currently both attractive and unpleasant at the same time. Moraitis contemplates the loss of innocence or vitality, the awakening of other desires and the internal struggle women face to redefine themselves, finding meaning beyond societal definitions of beauty and worth.
Working with a phrase or composed poem, her process begins in the medium of collage, taking elements and literal cut outs from mass media, which become installations with each sculpture punctuating the space. She uses imagery gathered from magazines, before reprinting them onto MDF, subverting them alongside autobiographical iconography/symbology, relating to her personal experiences.
Throughout the exhibition, she aims to highlight this time as superficially charming or alluring but lacking in depth or fulfilment. It invites the viewer to reflect on time’s fleeting nature and the existential questions that arise as one confronts the reality of aging, relationships, and societal pressures as a woman.
The imagery used acts as a reclamation of hyper-sexuality, presenting images that can be seen as suggestive in their context, but challenging the ‘brainwashed’ visual association to them. Reminiscent of their original form, the cut of the paper is mimicked in the shape of the MDF, allowing for copycat tears and jagged scissor lines.
In her own words “it’s a process of understanding a phrase and recreating it in a new magnified form; the puns become visual, the origin of the image now decontextualized and reconstructed.”
Artist Biography
Featured in the Collect Art magazine’s Women Art/Special edition, 2023.Curated and exhibited the group exhibition ‘The shape of our true self’ at Stanley Picker Gallery, 2023, Kingston.
Group exhibition, Saint Nicholas, Meakin + Parsons X Hannah Payne, 2022, Oxford.
Woolwich Contemporary print fair with Meakin + Parsons X Hannah Payne, 2022.
Group exhibition, Made it 2022, 2022, Short Supply Manchester, Rogue Artist Studios, Manchester.Joint exhibition, 2022, The Dolphin Gallery, Oxford.
Awarded 2nd place for the Egerton Coghill Prize 2022 for my work ‘Out of Reach”.
Performance, ‘Laced with consent’, 2019, The Keswick film festival.
Group exhibition, ‘Mind the Gap’, 2019, The Lanes shopping centre, Carlisle.
TM Gallery
As art lighting specialists, we consider the TM Gallery a natural location to discover noteworthy art. The gallery is a collaborative not-for-profit space for collectors, and a curated platform for accomplished career artists, or those with a celebrated body of iconic works.
We believe that when art is lit to its best, it has the power to transform an individual artwork or an entire collection. Our museum-quality art lighting helps us to achieve this, be it for an exhibition, an art fair, in our gallery, or your own home.
TM Lighting is illuminating the exhibition with its industry-leading GalleryOneThirty spotlights. Already found across London’s art market in galleries and museums, as well as luxury retail, the G130’s 98+ CRI high colour rendition ensures all artworks are displayed in their best light.
Exhibition address and contact: TM Gallery, 7 Cubitt Street, London, WC1X 0HF | www.tmlighting.com | info@tmlighting.com | t: +44 (0)207 278 1600