Irini Miga
I am thinking about the importance of the art language in an era where hard-won rights are being eroded, where the fear of the “other” has prompted the advent of censorship, bans and hate speech. Art depends on our ability to perceive things beyond boundaries. In that way, it becomes a device for some kind of perpetual fluidity, where information can be read in different ways, raising new questions and allowing unexpected discoveries. I grew up in Greece, a country on the line between the perceived East and West, where the distant past (antiquity,) present and desired future coexist; so seeing things through a prism of constant symbiosis became a norm early on.
As an immigrant artist living and working in the United States, I find myself at times suspended and lost in translation in the dichotomy that is created by opposing values. I find humble, anti-monumental gestures and giving value to the minor and otherwise neglected of immense importance. In my practice I create constellations of traces that ask for close examination. Marks of performative actions and traces of leftovers form a distinct understanding of what spatial identity or marking of time could be. I believe in art that demands awareness of space and time, where the personal touches the common, where noise shifts recognizability and silent moments take off. In that manner I am interested in the way that we navigate and perceive our environments; in the language of objects that surround our everyday reality; in the dialogues and shifting relationships of axes such as time, physical space, form and utility; sculpture and painting. I look at the point where sculpture touches painterly nuances as an unfolding sketchbook of our everyday reality in physical space. For me, the concept, the materials, along with the color that will activate the works and their surroundings are of equal importance. In that way the work engages with its surroundings in a cohesive way, as a painting engages with its canvas, or a drawing with its paper. I use basic sculptural materials like clay, wood, plaster, found and custom-made objects juxtaposed with everyday ephemera like paper, dust, and metal rods. I am constantly challenging the potential of my materials in order to create a variation of frequencies and movement within physical and mental space. I see my works as “moments in time”, and I am always looking for the things that we discover as our eyes adjust to the subversion of expectations.
EDUCATION
2012
MFA in Visual Arts, Columbia University, New York, US
2005
BFA, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens, GR
2003
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
(* denotes a catalogue publication)
2017
Good Weather presents: The Best Is The Least We Can Do, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta
Where Do We Stand? Two Years of Drawing with Open Sessions, curated by Lisa Sigal and Nova Benway, The Drawing Center, New York
Car Service II, curated by Danai Giannoglou and Vasilis Papageorgiou, Enterprise Projects, Athens
.connecting., Practice, New York (two person show with Joao Vasco Paiva)
Marginalia, curated by Lisa Sigal and Nova Benway, The Drawing Center, New York
*bang! Daily Lazy Projects, Athens
2016
The Equilibrists, curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Helga Christoffersen with Massimiliano Gioni, organized by the New Museum, New York and the DESTE Foundation, Athens in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, Athens*
The . beneath white – Wiener Art Foundation / fAN Kunstverein, artfoundation.at Vienna (solo show)
BiBeLot, curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis, Hydra School Projects, Hydra, Greece*
Leisure as a Mechanism for Resistance,curated by Daily Lazy, Wiener Art Foundation / fAN Kunstverein, Parallel, Vienna
Frida Smoked. Invisible Exports, New York
The Others, curated by Baseera Khan, 56 Bogart, pop-up show, Brooklyn, NY
Strategies in the Geometry of Homecoming, Torrance Shipman Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (curatorial)
2015
Table/Chair/Bananas, Bannerette, Brooklyn, NY
Immediate Female, Judith Charles Gallery, New York
Made In New York,curated by Robert Dimin, Blueshift Project, Miami, FL*
What You Want to See, curated by Laura Linda Miller, pop-up show, Bronx Studios
2014
Pre-Text, curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis, and Katerina Nikou, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, with the support of NEON.org.gr Athens
DAS-Zwischen Raum Zeit, Pitch Projects, Milwaukee, WI
HappyLand, Skowhegan Performs, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY
November,curated by mAgdalen Wong, Xinyi Cheng, and Skye Gilkerson, 437A, Brooklyn, NY
No Rules Can Rule When the Doors are Closed, Torrance Shipman, Brooklyn (curatorial)
2013
DAS and Irini Miga: Stage for a Journey, ReMap4, Athens (collaborative project)
Now and Then, European Central Bank Collection, Frankfurt am Main, Germany *
Group Mountain, curated by Andreas Angelidakis, Athens
In Praise of Chance and Failure, Family Business, New York
(co-curated with Nadja Argyropoulou)
2012
Columbia MFA Thesis Show, curated by Fionn Meade, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, New York *
Outside Mediation, Green Hall Gallery, Yale University, New Haven *
Contemporary Ceramics, curated by JJ Peet, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York
2011
Conceptual Romantic, curated by Gea Politi, CONDUITS (IT), ReMap3, Athens (solo show)
DESTE Prize 2011, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens*
3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, curated by Paolo Colombo, Mahita El Bacha Urieta, and Marina Fokidis, Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki *
Noor: Death in Jaipur, ReMap3, Athens
First Year MFA Exhibition, Wallach Gallery, New York*
Winter Lounge, curated by Emma Balazs, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York
Contemporary Woman in Greece, curated by Marina Fokidis, The Hub, Athens *
The Location of Culture, Pulchri Studio, The Hague*
2010
Rrripp!!! Paper Fashion, Museum Bellerive, Zurich
Of The Moment, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Contemporary Art Museum, Chicago (benefit)
Peri Erotos, Konteiner magazine at six d.o.g.s, Athens
2009
The Beautiful is just the First Degree of Terrible, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki*
Bloodsport, curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis, ReMap2, Athens
Rrripp!!! Paper Fashion, Mode Museum Provincle Antwerp, Belgium *
At Home He is a Tourist, Playroom, Athens
2008
And now? State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki*
Rrripp!!! Paper Fashion, MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg*
Wittingly Sparkling, Greedy Dimples, The Breeder, Athens (solo show)
2007
Echoes Prelude, Side 2, Tokyo (solo show)
Rrrippp!!! Paper Fashion, curated by Vassilis Zidianakis, Benaki Museum, Athens*
Tenderloin, ReMap1, Athens
I Sigxroni Elliniki Skini, Helexpo Garage, Athens*
True Romance, The Breeder, Athens
(co-curated)
2006
Panic Room, Works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, curated by Jeffrey Deitch and Kathy Grayson, DESTE Foundation, Athens *
All that remains is future, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou, Palaio Arsakeio, Patra, European Cultural Capital *
Degree Show, The Factory, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens
Architectural Transparencies, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center, Athens
Black and White, curated by Artemis Potamianou, Hellenic American Union, Athens*
2005
New Acquisitions, The Dakis Joannou Collection, The Athenaeum Intercontinental, Athens*
2004
3rd Biennale of Greek Universities of Fine Arts, Creta Maris Hotel, Crete*
2003
11th Biennale of Young Artist from Europe and the Mediterranean, Athens*
AWARDS
2014
HYAM-Young Mediterranean Artistic Scene Prize (shortlisted)
Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant Nominee, New York
2011
The DESTE Prize (shortlisted)
2010-11
The Fulbright Grant
2010-12
Joan Sovern Sculpture Award, Columbia University
2010-12
The Emily Fisher Landau Fellowship Fund, Columbia University, New York, NY
2000-02
IKY, Greek State Scholarships Foundation
RESIDENCIES
2016&17
Open Sessions, The Drawing Center, New York
2015-16
Workspace Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York
2015
International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria
(course with Raimundas Malaŝauskas)
2014
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan ME
2012
The Watermill Center, New York;
and Norwegian Theater Academy, Fredrikstad, Norway
2009
AZB Sculpture Guest-atelier, Zurich, Switzerland
RECENT PRESS MENTIONS
2017
2016
Ocula: The Equilibrists: A report from Greece by Stephanie Bailey
Artforum Diary: Crab Walk by Linda Yablonsky
Blouin ARTinfo: In Athens, a Debt Crisis Edition of the New Museum’s Triennial by Rachel Corbett
Daily Lazy: Irini Miga at Wiener Art Foundation / Vienna
Huffington Post: Six Women Artists Celebrate The Power Of The Cigarette by Priscilla Frank
Time Out New York: Frida Smoked by Howard Halle
The Creators Project: Six Female Artists Consider the Cigarette by Ysabelle Cheung
ARTnews: Opening: “Frida Smoked” at Invisible-Exports by the editors of ARTnews
Milk: Can smoking be a feminist act? by Jocelyn Silver
Daily Lazy: Frida Smoked. at Invisible-Exports / New York
Art F City: Smoke ‘Em if You Got ‘Em: “Frida Smoked” at Invisible-Exports by Emily Colucci
2015
Huffington Post, Ten Badass Emerging Female artist you should know, by Priscilla Frank