Isidora Rentzika (b. 1990) focuses on existential issues and universal emotions such as fear, loneliness, insecurity and the constant anxiety about deconstruction and redefinition of identity. Her influences from the Existentialists, Game Theory but, also, the observation of modern everyday life lead her to the composition of ambiguous images and short stories revolving around the concepts of irony and the absurd, with a sense of mockery. The protagonists of her paintings, as they are on the edge of marginality and decay, experience dilemma, risk, guilt and, perhaps, the transition to a new state. The artist, intentionally, disrupts conventional narration and shifts the boundary between the familiar and the uncanny in order to propose alternative realities where different views of given situations and the possibility of a plot twist prevail. She lives and works in Thessaloniki, Greece.
EDUCATION
2017 BA/MA Painting, School of Visual and Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Paradise, dates and a punch in the face, Oratos, Thessaloniki, Greece
2022 Mataroa Awards - solo booth, Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair, TIF-HELEXPO, Thessaloniki, Greece
2021 Nash Equilibrium, To Pikap - The Room, Thessaloniki, Greece
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Digital.Not_Reboot, ArtCore, Thessaloniki, Greece
New Perspectives, Cosmopolis festival, Great Clubhouse, Kavala, Greece
Athens Open Art, Art Number 23, Athens, Greece
Digital.Not (A), Oratos, Thessaloniki, Greece
2020 To Pikap Community – Art in Thessaloniki 2018-2019, Municipal Art Gallery (Casa Bianca), Thessaloniki, Greece
2019 Digging Up 6+3, Refugees Museum, Thessaloniki, Greece
2018 Inspire Project 2018 Christopher Makos: Face the Strange, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Biennale Larnaca “Container and Content”, Municipal Gallery, Larnaca, Cyprus
Emerging Artists, Open Art Lab, TIF-HELEXPO, Thessaloniki, Greece
2017 4th Painting Studio of AUTh, Society for Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki, Greece
2016 4th Painting Studio of AUTh, Paleontology & History Museum, Ptolemaida, Greece
WORKSHOPS, PROJECTS, INITIATIVES
2024 Build change: An alphabet for socially engaged art, workshop with Bill Balaskas, Goethe Institut, Thessaloniki, Greece
'Vogel', workshop with Giorgos Gerontides, The Esque Studio, Thessaloniki, Greece
2023 Pernoume Thesi Project, Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece
2021 Founder member of artists collective Digital.Not
2020 Resilience Project - So Far So Close, Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki – MOMus
2018 Inspire Project 2018 Christopher Makos: Face the Strange, workshop with Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
AWARDS
2022 Mataroa Awards (nominee), Thessaloniki, Greece
PUBLICATIONS, REFERENCES, CATALOGUES, PRESS
Η Ισιδώρα κρύβει συναρπαστικές ιστορίες πίσω από τους τεράστιους, πολύχρωμους αλλά και σκοτεινούς πίνακές της, Exostis, 2024, interview
6th Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Art Fair, 2022, catalogue
ΑΠΟΝΟΜΗ ΒΡΑΒΕΙΩΝ ΜΑTAROA 2022, Cultural Society, 2022, article
Oι 10 νέοι καλλιτέχνες της έκθεσης MATAROA 2022 μιλούν για τον θεσμό των βραβείων, Cultural Society, 2022, article
Η δεκάδα των βραβευμένων Ελλήνων εικαστικών στην Art Thessaloniki, Liberal, 2022, article
Athens Open Art, 2021, exhibition e-catalogue
MOMus Resilience Project - So Far So Close, 2020
To Pikap Community – Art In Thessaloniki, 2019, article
Inspire Project 2018 Christopher Makos: Face the Strange, 2018, exhibition & workshop catalogue
Biennale Larnaca, 2018, exhibition catalogue
Emerging Artists, 2018, exhibition catalogue
4th Painting Studio of AUTh Group Show, 2017, exhibition catalogue
4th Painting Studio of AUTh Group Show, 2016, exhibition catalogue
COLLECTIONS
Private collections in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece
