IN BALANCE: Kalliopi Lemos

 The Greek born, London-based sculptor, painter and installation artist is known for her site-specific installations inspired by human rights. Through In Balance Lemos convey day-to-day struggles and the pursuit of personal freedom and self-fulfillment.

In Balance provides an introduction to the recurring themes Lemos has been exploring through her work over the last 20 years. The show explores the individual’s desire to attain an inner balance in an increasingly pressurised world, inviting visitors to contemplate life, its dualities and pressures, and the psychological and physical pain one suffers in the quest for a conscious existence.

The exhibition will feature both new and old works in a variety of different mediums. The lower floor of the gallery includes a set of vibrant seed-like sculptures, arranged on axes as if on a scale. These responsive stainless steel sculptures invite viewers to move the rotation of the axis and play around with the stability of the works, contemplating the tension between male and female, aggressive and passive, action and inaction. Also on show will be a group of air-dried clay figurines wrapped in Japanese paper, illustrating the strained and tormented bodies of those who battle to balance in an ever-demanding and changing world.

The video, At the Centre of the World, 2015, which Lemos was awarded the Borusan Contemporary Art Collection Prize for, will be situated in the back room of the lower gallery, drawing a claustrophobic picture of our constant effort for inner freedom. The video depicts a woman trapped inside a cage-like iron sphere, unsuccessfully attempting to break free and balance while she is found ‘at the centre of the world’. Finally she accepts she has to discover freedom and balance within the constricted structure. Visitors will be able to view the sphere featured in the work in the upper gallery.

A series of eight wax and oil paintings on gesso paper entitled Study of a head in Wax, 2011, will be on display in the upper gallery as well as another series of wall sculptures with photographs made in 2012, highlighting our anguish for a life that is both difficult and intimidating.