On Thursday 20 July 2023 the gallery ‘follow your art’ invites you to the solo exhibition of engravings by Mary Schoina entitled «The Magic of Black» on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of her first presentation at the Skoufa Gallery in Athens. This exhibition presents a series of works different from her usual perspective towards light and nature. Until then, Mary Schoina's interest was more focused on the rendering of light through movement and transparency of colour, while in this section she moves away from this by focusing on the particularities of black. As noted by Irini Horati, artistic director at the Ioannou F. Kostopoulou Foundation and former curator of the Alpha Bank Art Collection:
«Schoina adds an additional stage to the engraving process, choosing to process, through the technique of watercolour, her own black and white digital photographs, taken in summer near the sea, at night with a full moon. The different approach to photographic capture brings Schinas to face two challenges. First, to work with the impressions created by light without the mediation of colour - with which she had worked almost exclusively over the past decades. Second, by choosing black and white photography, to successfully return back to the primary commitments of printmaking, which is the relationship between white and black.».
She states: «Photography invaded the realms of visual expression, particularly in the field of printmaking, in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was a time when visual artists were looking for opportunities and studying ways to improve the sharpness of their expression. Since then, photography has been able to create a rare phenomenon: to capture the fleeting, the rapid, the accidental, even the movement of light. It is the testimony of the external reality of our lives in time. By transferring the photograph onto a copper plate, i.e. by means of photocopying, the above phenomena that the artist manages to record can lead him to unique visual results. Thus today, the almost magical power of recording and enhancing the visual image has made photography an indispensable tool in Art. On the copper plate, with aquatint and oxidations, the artist can achieve the magic black and many tones of grey, increasing the possibilities for different results in composition.».
The Magic of Black
Mary Schoina
Inauguration: Thursday 20 July 2023 , 21:00
Duration of the exhibition: 20/7 to 31/7/23
