The artists nominated by
We first met Greek photographer and architect Stefania Orfanidou at a bookmaking workshop. Her delicate compositions and intriguing images play like music when laid out on pages.
Meanwhile, Ioanna Sakellaraki is another talented Greek artist with whom we’ve been familiar for some time. Her first monograph, The Truth is in the Soil, deals with personal issues, mourning and Greek society: subjects that are close to our hearts.
Another of our nominees is Czech photographer Josef Janošík, whose dark body of work resonates greatly with Void’s aesthetic interests. In his work, Janošík returns to half-forgotten childhood memories, and to the places where his childhood was spent.
Greek artist Dafni Melidou has a similar sense of creativity and experimentation in her work. Though currently unpublished, a number of her series – like The fossils, the ashes and other remains of existence – have the right ingredients for an intriguing photobook.
Beyond our base in Athens, Void also operates a small branch in Reykjavík, Iceland. With this in mind, we were keen to showcase a local artist; Þórsteinn Svanhildarson caught our attention with his touching portraiture of local youths, as well as with his beautiful book production.
We first met Greek photographer and architect Stefania Orfanidou at a bookmaking workshop. Her delicate compositions and intriguing images play like music when laid out on pages.
Meanwhile, Ioanna Sakellaraki is another talented Greek artist with whom we’ve been familiar for some time. Her first monograph, The Truth is in the Soil, deals with personal issues, mourning and Greek society: subjects that are close to our hearts.
Another of our nominees is Czech photographer Josef Janošík, whose dark body of work resonates greatly with Void’s aesthetic interests. In his work, Janošík returns to half-forgotten childhood memories, and to the places where his childhood was spent.
Greek artist Dafni Melidou has a similar sense of creativity and experimentation in her work. Though currently unpublished, a number of her series – like The fossils, the ashes and other remains of existence – have the right ingredients for an intriguing photobook.
Beyond our base in Athens, Void also operates a small branch in Reykjavík, Iceland. With this in mind, we were keen to showcase a local artist; Þórsteinn Svanhildarson caught our attention with his touching portraiture of local youths, as well as with his beautiful book production.
Dafni Melidou (b. 1990, Greece) is a visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice combines research, photography, writing and multi-media experimentation. Coming from a scientific background her working and research methods are versatile, and she approaches her projects from many angles. She works with her own photographs, found images, tactile materials and smells, often re-appropriated and constructed into new constellations, shapes or forms.
Melidou's experimental works start with her daily encounters of events in the mass media and her personal observations. Her themes center around gender and social injustices, the complexities of representation and our conflicting perception of reality. A common thread in her work is the understanding of materiality and the physical world in a digital age. Her fascination lies with creating non-conclusive and often confusing stories that call for an open interpretation and invite the viewers to re-think dominant
media narratives.
Melidou holds a B.A. in Chemistry, a M.Sc. in Food Science and she is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Photography & Society at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK). In 2021 she co-founded cartographydigest.com, an experimental visual platform aiming to stretch the boundaries of photography and map new territories. She is currently based between Rotterdam and Athens.
Ioanna Sakellaraki (b.1989) is a Greek visual artist and researcher. Her work investigates the relationship between collective cultural memory and fiction. Drawing emphasis on the photographic object, process and encounter, she explores the boundaries of a primitive, yet futuristic vision of places and people. She was recently awarded a Doctoral Scholarship for undertaking her PhD in Art after graduating from an MA Photography from the Royal College of Art. She is the recipient of The Royal Photographic Society Bursary Award 2018 and was named Student Photographer of the Year by Sony World Photography Awards 2020. In 2019, she was awarded with the Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant in Tokyo and the International Photography Grant Creative Prize. Nominations include: the Inge Morath Award by Magnum Foundation in USA, the Prix HSBC, the Prix Levallois and the Prix Voies Off in France. Her work has been exhibited internationally in art festivals and galleries with a recent solo show at the European Month of Photography in Berlin. Her projects have been featured in magazines such as The New Yorker and journals including The Guardian and Deutsche Welle. Her first monograph ‘The Truth is in the Soil’ is published by GOST Books.
Josef Janošík (b. 1995) is a photographer based in the Czech Republic. In his work, he searches for and relives his childhood memories – however corroded and unreliable they may be. Exploring the limits of human perception is important for him in general as well as the elusive uncertainty that lies behind them.
Stefania Orfanidou was born in 1989. She is a photographer and an architect currently living and working in Athens, Greece. She has lived in Kavala, Thessaloniki, Madrid, Rotterdam, L’Aquila and Chania. In January 2019 she founded the architectural atelier CHORA. In her work, a personal experience or event, real or imaginary, is the starting point for fragments’ stitching and the composition of tales, where the irrational, the reasonable, the uncanny and the secret may coexist harmoniously. Her photographic work has been featured in magazines, galleries and festivals in Greece and abroad. In February 2019 she published the book ‘Pendulum’, a visual recounting of a return journey to the city of L’Aquila in central Italy. In 2020 she received the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS. In 2021 she published the book ‘Cold Turkey’ and she created the art installation ‘Daidala’ at Yali Tzamisi at Chania, Crete.
My name is Þórsteinn Svanhildarson and I am a photographer from Reykjavík, Iceland. I graduated from Photography School Of Iceland class 2018. I run a small gallery/project space down town Reykjavík called Núllið Gallery. (Instagram: @nullidgallery)
Books and zines:
Juvenile Bliss. 2018 - GRAZIE PRESS (book)
Container Society pt 1. 2018 - GRAZIE PRES (book)
Rest in Pain. 2016 (partnership w. Kocane Wayne / Sniper. (zine)
Untitled 2009 (zine)
Solo-exhibition:
Núllið gallery - Juvenile Bliss book publishing celebration. 2018
Gallery Port - Container Society 2018
KEX Hostel- The Old Living Art Museum - 2017
Lost Horse Gallery Reykjavik - 2007
Joint-exhibitions:
Blurring the lines - Paris College of Art, Fotodok, Urbanautica institute, Fotofever - 2018
Gallery Port - Christmas Editions 2017
Gallery Port - 2016
Reykjavík Culture Night Exhibition 2010 - Laugavegur 32
Gallery Bosnia Hverfisgötu - 2009 (two exhibitions)
Get RVK - O. Johnson & Kaaber 2009
thorsteinn.svan@gmail.com
