Description
Christos Pantieras’ work explores themes of communication, relationships, intimacy, and identity. Pantieras is interested in how these themes relate to the online community and the real-life encounters that result from digital messaging. His art takes the form of installations, sculptures and mixed media works that represent online language in physical form and occupy real space beyond the virtual space. Sourcing text from digital platforms, he manipulates this language through analog processes to record a human presence, to archive dissolution, and to investigate the resonance of a lost online connection. Christos Pantieras is exploring the semiotics of gay hook-up culture, online communication, and resonance. This work references Pantieras’ time in Toronto, as he sourced text from his own experiences of navigating on-line dating and hook-up apps. Christos Pantieras graduated with a BFA and a B.Ed. from the University of Ottawa and completed his Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture at York University (Toronto) in 2015. Pantieras is a member of the Enriched Bread Artists studio collective and he has been the recipient of several Ontario Arts Council and City of Ottawa grants. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Ottawa Art Gallery, the ArQuives (formerly the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives) [Toronto], the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre (Kingston), AXENÉO7 (Gatineau), Artcite Inc. (Windsor) and CIRCA art actuel (Montreal).