Lafina Eptaminitaki

Country where you live:

United States/Greece

City where you live:

New York/Athens

Website:

https://lafina.site/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lafinnnn

Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lafina-eptaminitaki-b8a7865a/

Statement :

My practice exists at the intersection of art, architecture, and language. Working across drawing, performance, projection, and installation, I interweave theories of mythology, cultural heritage, femininity, and ecology to explore how social and political systems are embedded within images and objects. My practice negotiates our relationship with identity, collective memory, physical body, and nature, aiming to uncover narratives that have been neglected, forgotten, or misrepresented in an ever-changing, fragmented, and systematic world. Similar to an archive, my approach approximates archaeology, excavating layer upon layer of evidence that invites audiences on a destabilizing journey of relearning and self-reflection, prompting questions about our shared past and the boundaries we impose upon ourselves.

In terms of expression, my interests lie in ephemeral spatial experiences, public installations, exhibition design, scenic design, and publications, and I enjoy experimenting with natural materials, such as marble, graphite, wood, leaves, and rocks. My process involves distilling, deconstructing, and indexing complex scenes from my research into elemental components and then reassembling them to reveal the inherent simplicity and contrast that mediates between the worlds of geometry and fluidity, permanence and ephemerality, fragmentation and wholeness while exposing contemporary concerns and feelings.

Quote:

“Are not the mountains, waves and skies, a part of me and of my soul, as I of them?”  — George Gordon Byron, 1812-1818.

Memory as Anxiety

Medium: Video Size: N/A This image is a still frame from a filmed performance. The whole video was projected on the marble pieces of my work “Fragments and Futures.” (Full video link: https://youtu.be/bLpTdDB0T8Y)

Work Credit:

Lafina Eptaminitaki

Fragments and Futures

Medium: White marble, plaster, projection Size: 3 x 12 x 21 ft (whole installation) The work explores humanity's relationship with nature, collective memory, and cultural heritage in the Greek context. Through the material of marble, it investigates the notion of “broken” identity on three scales: the fractured individual (as seen through the parts that mold one’s identity), the fragmented cultural heritage (as seen through the Greek sculptural tradition), and the disrupted landscape (as seen through the contemporary Greek marble quarries).

Work Credit:

Lafina Eptaminitaki

On Nature

Medium: Leaves, concrete, rocks Size: 4 x 4 x 3 in The work delves into the interplay between the built environment and nature, aiming to subvert the conventional paradigm of construction that often imposes concrete upon the natural landscape. In this piece, the opposite happens: leaves “sit” on concrete, forming enclosures that mimic contrasting moments of solidity and emptiness.

Work Credit:

Lafina Eptaminitaki

In 50 Years

Medium: Graphite on paper Size: 8 x 8 in This work depicts the erosion of a concrete block located in the sea. Bereft of purpose, it stands as a relic of a forgotten intention. A square form, primal and exposed, set against the backdrop of boundless water, it gains significance through its witness to erosion over time. This drawing shows its condition in 50 years, where water and concrete coexist until the block succumbs to complete dissolution.

Work Credit:

Lafina Eptaminitaki

Four Cracks

Medium: Acrylic paint on wood Size: 14 x 14 in (each painting) This work is a series of four paintings that reflect the existential feeling of being thrown into the world, as described in Jean-Paul Sartre's essay “Existentialism is a Humanism,” 1946. Through the broken frame, it tries to understand our relationship with memory and landscape in an era of constant change and continual moving.

Work Credit:

Lafina Eptaminitaki

Bio:

Lafina Eptaminitaki is a visual artist, architect, and poet from Crete, Greece, based in New York. She holds a Master in Design Studies from Harvard University, a Master of Arts from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark, and a Master of Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Thessaly, Greece. Professionally, she has worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture, and MOS Architects, designing and contributing to diverse exhibitions, installations, buildings, objects, and publications. While at Harvard, she worked as a curator at Kirkland Gallery and served as the co-president for Womxn in Design, advocating for gender equity and diversity through design. In addition, she is the co-founder of Atelier Atthis, a woman-led interdisciplinary practice in Athens that navigates the realms of art, architecture, and scenography.

Lafina has been the recipient of several grants, including the Pulimood Grant honoring Jenni Crain, which facilitated her participation in the ‘T’ Space Architecture Residency in Rhinebeck, NY. Her accomplishments extend to numerous awards, including First Place in the Architecture & Design Collection Awards (2023), Architecture MasterPrize (2023), Gaudi Architecture Prize (2020), and Awards for Religious Art and Architecture (2018). Her work has been showcased in group exhibitions at the New York Live Arts (2024), :iidrr Gallery (2023), New York; Carpenter Center for Visual Arts (2023), Drunken Gallery (2023), Kirkland Gallery (2023), Cambridge; 11th and 10th Biennale (2023 and 2021), Athens; Teloglion Foundation for the Arts (2023), Thessaloniki; 6th Architecture Triennale (2022), Crete; AIA Conference on Architecture (2019), Las Vegas; Art Museum in Tønder (2016), Denmark; Milan Furniture Fair (2015), Italy, et al.

Currently, Lafina teaches at Columbia University while serving as an artist-in-residence at Kunstraum in Brooklyn, a selected mentee at the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Immigrant Artist Program, and a chosen respondent for Columbia’s public discussion series, Affirmations, which is dedicated to reimagining the built landscape in response to contemporary challenges. She also volunteers at ProjectArt, where she co-teaches free art classes for children at the Brooklyn Public Library at New Lots.