Chryssafenia Gardiakou

Chryssafenia is a multi-local artist, curator and art historian who spends her time in Illinois, Greece and Ecuador. She works in 2D, 3D, collage, installation and performance,joining artist collectivas with gusto and often collaborating with fashion designers, fiber artists, weavers, musicians and dancers.
Her themes include cross-dressing, alchemy, performativity, shamanism, interstice, the body, disability studies, semiotics,border and Latino studies, as well as sacred stories.
Her current work explores magical symbols, hierophanies, and how pain mitigates or intensifies these experiences. Ultimately, exploring and trying to find what inhabits the cusp.
Another significant area of focus is on how fashion has been used in art to navigate, explore and explosively disrupt the status quo. Personal dramaturgy performed via sartorialism is examined as well.



the role of curator, in the region of Mani in southern Greece,where a floating art exhibit Re:Think, an exhibit tackling consumerism, found art and illegal dumping in the region of Maratholaka.

Northern Illinois University
B.F.A. in Studio Art
B.A. in Art History
M.A in Art History
S.A.I.C (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Fashion

-Apprenticed under Christo Rigana, Sculptor

-Workshop with Flo Oy Won (studied multi-media collage)

Scholarships:
-Helen Merritt Scholarship
-Dimitris Liakos Scholarship
-Rosebud Foundation- V&PA Endowment
-Art History Instructor at Northern Illinois --University 2011-2014

-JULY 2019 Women to the Front- Group show curated by esteemed collage artist and activist Bryan Daniel Joseph
-JUNE 2019 What Is Empathy? Aurora Public Art Commission, curated by Jen Evans
-APRIL 2019 Group Art Show

-MAY 2017
ARTBAR The Delirium Show
-April 2017
ARTBAR The Body Show
-February 2017
ARTBAR The Desire show
-January 2017
ARTBAR The Fable Show
-June 2016
ARTBAR Sin Titulo
-May 2016
ARTBAR The Urban Show
-MAY 2016
SciTech Museum/ on Occasion of the 125th Anniversary of Aurora IL Postal Office
-April 2016
ARTBAR The Dream Show
-March 2016
ARTBAR The Cat Show
-February 2016
ARTBAR- The Red Show


-March 2013-
Exhibiting work at Mausoleum Gallery

-February 2013-
Group exhibit- "Where's Your Heart?" (curated by Nikki Rice)
Anti-Violence Valentine

-Fall 2012-
"Monsters" Curated by Ramon Soto

-Summer 2011-
Aurora Art Walk (Featured artist)

-Spring 2011-
Group show at Mausoleum Gallery in Aurora Il.

-Fall 2010-
SOLO SHOW: "SARTORIAL MACGYVERISM: Inception, Dramaturgy and Endymatological Apotheosis" at Bad Dog Gallery, DeKalb

-September 2010-
ALLEY ART FESTIVAL-exhibited with FUGLY DUCKLING-

-July 2010-December 2009-
"RE:THINK" (Touring show in the Pel...