Brigitte Polemis

Brigitte Polemis was born in Damascus, Syria, to a Lebanese father and a Polish mother. She grew up in Poland and later moved into a war-torn Lebanon. In her later teens, she moved to Greece and then Cyprus. At the age of 17, she left Europe to study in New York City at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in order to start her career as a fashion designer and a textile artist. In 1992 she moved to London to explore Fine Arts and in 2004 she graduated from Chelsea School of Arts. In the meantime, she married a Greek and together they have 4 children. For the last 10 years, she has settled in Athens Greece with her family. She speaks fluent Greek, English, French, Arabic, and Polish. Brigitte Polemis acquired an inverted experience of the comfort that her contemporary peers in Western Europe and North America lavished in for decades. Drawn from her own personal experience, the artist is able to relate, through her work, to the struggles that this young generation faces. At the same time, her minimal aesthetics of colour, line, form, and composition aim to leave the viewer with a sense of hope and optimism that the challenge we all face is just another storm that will pass. After all, “there wouldn't be a joy if it wasn't for pain” as Bennie Pete, sousaphone player of the jazz band, Hot 8 Brass, reminds us when asked how he maintains such a sunny disposition.

Artist Statement:

My work is caught between the disciplines of Digital original art, printing, design and sculpture. It is defined by minimal aesthetics of colour, line, and form. The choice of media, the use of technologies and my attention to high production values, give my artwork a very contemporary feel. In addition, the use of the multiple motifs and lined backgrounds ads elements of surreal, optical and pop art, that in my work finds a new unique expression.

Through my art, I question issues of conformity, standardization, vanity, and humanity. The use of the faceless male figurine conveys the objectification of the individual and the senseless reproduction reflecting our consumer society. The subtle use of colour serves as traces of hope amongst the greys and blacks that represent sentiments of desperation and hope.