Eva Paraskeva was born in Etolikon, Hellas. She lives and works in Athens, Hellas. In 1990, she collaborated with the first animation studio in Hellas, Artoon Entertainment (Hellenic Animation Studio). By 1991 she completed successfully an art cycle of Painting Courses at Athens College.
Her works have been exhibited in numerous galleries and art spaces in Hellas highlighting a recent display in 2018 at Michael Cacoyannis Foundation.
Exceptional was her participation in the contest, organized by one of the most well-known radio stations of Athens, under the theme Me Too, inspired by the homonymous contemporary movement. Her artwork entitled ‘Movement – Flexibility’, with which she participated, was selected out of 250 and was distinguished.
Extremely notable is her poem writing, as well. In 2015 three poems of her were published by Fryctories Magazine, anonline cultural magazine, while in early 2016 were republished at the poetic anthology Archive of Civilization by the Archeion Politismou, a distinguished online cultural institution.
In 2016 one of her poems was set to music and had been included into a CD issued by the Municipality of Chalandri (Athens) by the title Eleven Lyrics Creators. The CD constituted the main theme of the concert held at the Ravine Theatre (open theatre).
Artist’s note: ‘I was born and raised at Etolikon, a small island which lays in the lagoon of Missolonghi.
Under the effect of the unique landscape of the area with various and particular contrasts, I had awakened – since my early years- my artistic skills. Shyly, at the age of 10, these artistic skills had been noticed from my friends and relatives.
Through rhyme I am expressing myself, and through linear I am displaying my feelings and experiences.
Lyrical as a mean of expression, Painting as a different kind of expression.
Lyrical and Painting are my great affections since then.
Both of them are pieces of my authentic self, they are part of my life, and there are certain periods in my life in which I was dedicated to them with great appeal and inspiration.My inspiration helped me to escape from empty reality. And so, in 2015 I changed completely my professional activity and I was liberated from raw reality of business industry. So, I reconnected with my beloved Painting.
My creative journey included seminars of self-awareness, alternative healing, lyrical, graphology, numerology. Through them I had been awakened and inspired more and more, so I expressed my full range of creativity.‘
Curator’s note: The austerity and simpleness of pen and ink drawing production may actually issue a challenge to creators’ artfulness. Ink drawings are, generally, characterized by a certain emotive pared-down style that steps out from the completely clean and clear synthesis. Nevertheless, that same cleanliness has the power to leave the artist susceptible to criticism because the high contrast with the white surface leaves no room for error.
Within this framework, Eva Paraskeva manages to outline, on her large or smaller paper surfaces, palimpsest drawings of her inner self and manuscripts of such influences as transferred through her surroundings, by using inks so skilfully. Drawn with knowledge, her ink creations carry a graphic expressive power that adds on her personal signature artistic verbal idiom. All lines convey knowledge and power, communicate thought and feeling, and grouped together, create a fine compound between one another, with no pun intended.
Into Eva Paraskeva’s vibrant graphic world the drawings, injected with the bright whitewashed paper base, push the depicted elements to the edge of inventive, dynamic abstraction, while the lines take on a life of their own.
Through the evocative plasticity of her flexible artistic language, the forms that derive infuse a fascinated image of vividly recalled features from memories and insight, making Eva Paraskeva’s ink drawings accessible and not nerve-racking at all. Especially her latest body of work reflects a build-up of intuition and technique gained over her productive years, from her early aesthetic learnings in childhood to her current artistic skills and manners, captivated by the ideal of the self-awareness goals she pursues; a lifelong edifying investigation that has, over time, further elaborate on her own overall way of thinking.