Chrysanne Stathacos

Chrysanne Stathacos  is a multidisciplinary artist of Greek, American and Canadian origin. Her work has encompasses printmaking, textile, painting, installation  and conceptual art. Stathacos is heavily involved with and influenced by feminism, Greek Mythology, eastern spirituality and Tibetan Buddhism, all of which inform her current artistic practice.

Stathacos has exhibited in museums, galleries, and venues internationally. She has participated in countless exhibitions in various media, but she is most known for her unique combination of performance and installation. She has received funding for her projects and her artwork from foundations and government agencies such as the Art Matters Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, among others.

Amidst the AIDS crisis in the 1990s, Stathacos’ work became deeply engaged with body politics, and her commentary on issues of sexuality and gender became more pronounced. Through her work, Stathacos was creating images and experiences that  connect issues of body, environment, and future. Her  works from that time represent this pivotal moment in the artist’s practice.

In the 1990s, Stathacos developed an artistic alter ego named Anne de Cybelle, who was enraged by the exclusion of women artists in the art historical canon. Cybelle was part self-portrait, part activist, and asked questions about how we see art history, conventional time, identity, and patriarchal social conventions. The canvas works included in this presentation are a result of this critical inquiry. Stathacos printed on her surfaces using intimate materials such as hair, clothing, condoms; and organic materials such as ivy, cannabis, and roses. Through her careful and repeated patterning she critically reflects on a history of vulnerability and loss, and transforms its remnants into poetic compositions that reflect on spiritual imagery.

Stathacos is known for her support of  her woman artists in her collaborative exhibitions and blogs, and social practice.  Two major collaborative works from the early 1990’s  still resonate today: “The Abortion Project” with Kathe Burkhart, and “The Banquet” with Hunter Reynolds. The Abortion Project commemorated women’s reproductive rights, and was presented at Artists Space, Simon Watson Gallery, Real Art Ways, Hallwalls, and New LangtonArts between 1990 and 1993. The Banquet was first performed at Thread Waxing Space in 1992, inspired by Surrealist Meret Oppenheim’s Spring Feast. On May 1, 2017, Participant Inc. celebrated The Banquet’s 25h Anniversary as part of Ephemera Office Enterprise. Since 2012, she has been a co-editor of  the interview artblog MOMMY,  an appreciation of women artists who have been working for at least 20 years.

Stathacos’ first  major interactive work 1-900-Mirror-Mirror (1993). This sculptural installation was made during the height of the AIDS crisis when Stathacos was living in New York, and was first exhibited at Andrea Rosen Gallery the year it was made. Grappling with the deaths of many friends and colleagues, Stathacos conceived of the work to discover what viewers might ask when confronted with their own image in an infinity chamber. Using a video phone, the artist would speak with viewers as they entered the booth and conduct tarot readings in order to create a space where people could ask questions about the future. The mirrored walls were meticulously printed on with hair and ivy, and exemplify the interconnected interests of Stathacos’ practice.

”1-900 Mirror Mirror”predicted by a decade the skype chats and video-streaming exchanges. The Breeder Gallery, Athens, presented this seminal interactive work “1-900 Mirror Mirror” at Frieze NY, May 4-11, 2017, to much acclaim in The Art Newspaper.In 2020, during another pandemic, 1-900 Mirror Mirror was exhibited in There are more than four, curated by Jacob Korczynski at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto which resulted in many articles on this work.  Many zoom interactive chats during the exhibition were offered to the public as the gallery was often closed due to the pandemic. Rhiannon Vogl’s article  “Calling Cards” for Blackflash magazine details her experience with 1-900 Mirror Mirror at Cooper Cole Gallery, There are more than four,  curated by Jacob Korczynski.

AA Bronson included her performance and installation Rose Mirror Mandala (2006) in The Temptation of AA Bronson, Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, (2013). Her performance “Pythia’s Warm Breath” was included in Oracle Drawings, Parliament of Bodies, public programs, documenta 14, 2017.  Stathacos had her first one person exhibition in Athens, “Pythia”, The Breeder, Athens in 2017.  “Pythia Rose Mandala“was presented in “AA Bronson’s Garten Der Luste” at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Her work is also included in “AA Bronson’s House of Shame” published by Edition Patrick Frey in 2021.

Her recent exhibitions include Gold Rush at Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto and Situations, New York City. Her installation  “Five  Mirrors  of the  World ”was included in the Second edition of  The Sculpture Park, Jaipur, India  .

Stathacos works are in the collections of The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada  the Albright-Knox Art Gallery , Buffalo, New York; the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria . British Columbia, Canada; the Castellani Art Museum, Lewiston, New York; the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, Canada; and the Memorial Art Gallery,  University of Rochester. 

She is a founding Director of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Initiatives, (dgli.org) a non- profit organization that works to help Tibetan Buddhist women practitioners in the Himalayas, inspired by the life work of  Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo. Stathacos participated as a panelist in a major artist-centered research convening titled, In the Present Moment: Buddhism, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice, organized by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in partnership with the University of Victoria in 2019. Stathacos was included in  The Art Gallery of Ontario’s Artist Spotlight series

Stathacos participated  in the 13th Gwangju Biennale Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning:– with a new  work The Three Dakini Mirrors (of the Body, Speech and Mind).  Canadian Art Magazine featured an interview Mirrors, Mandalas and Seeing the Self with  Chrysanne Stathacos on  her new installation for the Gwangju Biennale and psychic communications and connections amid pandemic loss.  Stathacos’ paintings from her Condom Series will be presented at  ” Every Moment Counts – AIDS and its Feelings” at the Henie Onstad Museum in February, 2022.  Stathacos presented “Blowing Roses” at the MAO- Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin in June, 2022, an installation and performance work.

The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art presented “Cooking with Roses,” a survey of the acclaimed, Buffalo-born artist’s  Chrysanne Stathacos’ work with the eponymous flower. The exhibition is the first of three in BICA’s 2022-23 exhibition series: “Recovering Futures” supported by the Warhol Foundation. 

https://chrysannestathacos.com/bio/