Sofia Stevi @ Pippy Houldsworth Gallery

The artist, Sofia Stevi shows new paintings and sculpture, in an exhibition entitled We don’t have to learn something new.    It is taken from a line describing the Lithuanian-American archaeologist, Marija Gimbutas (1921-94), that reads, ‘her work gives us hope because she shows that we don’t have to learn something new, we only need to remember that which we have tragically forgotten’ (Ralph Metzner 1990). Using research that acknowledged mythology and folklore.  Gimbutas argued for the existence of early matriarchal civilisations. These narratives offer Stevi hope and a sense of the artist’s place in the history of image making. Combining this material with personal experience, she constructs a space of dreamy familiarity, recognisable to the viewer through their own perceptual inheritance.
Sofia Stevi’s paintings conjure emotionally charged, liquid visions that undulate between graphic figuration and dynamic, gestural brushstrokes. Drawing on her physical and emotional experience of the world, she brings together imagery encountered through dreams, ancient Greek mythology, poetry and digital media. Male and female bodies, organic forms and symbols meet in a wash of palpable emotion, conveying anger and desire through intuitive associations.