TAF Gallery is pleased to present “I Love You and I Hate You”, a solo exhibition of new works by Nia Hefe Filiogianni. With everyday reusable materials such as recycled textiles, wood and gouache, Nia Hefe Filiogianni constructs a fascinating world rooted in full emotions of love and hate. Born in Greece (b.1990), Nia has lived in London (UK) since 2015. Her oeuvre gives form to her experience of leaving her country and coming back during a period of pandemic.
Emotions deal with the body and feelings deal with the mind. The constructs of love and hate are fluid and constantly changing. They both bring on the same physiological changes; Love and hate are related to each other in a complex manner. They process an aesthetic value, which inspire to great heights and lure to the lowest depths of the human condition. Classical Greek writings are immersed with words that describe what love and different types of affection mean, as well as hate. “I Love You and I Hate You” presents the beauty and the ugliness, the certainty and the doubt; the investigation of an emotional turmoil expressed in a very symbolic language; through signs, shapes, colours and textures.
All intertwined between the realistic-figurative compositions and the abstract chromatic inserts that force us to go beyond the real figure of the visible. This series of works constitutes a lyrical geometry with marks and voids, suggesting a new way of decoding emotions and feelings; meticulously sewn threads outline the way she perceives her relationship with her hometown, Athens. A place so beautiful, yet so ugly.