Elena T Smyrniotis

Elena T. Smyrniotis is an artist who primarily works in oils and printmaking, but has begun to experiment more heavily with gouache over the past two years. Currently located in Dubai, Elena has also worked in China and England, although she calls Canada home. Her engagement with Art started young and began to be more concentrated after taking a year long student workshop at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto. She obtained a Bachelor fo Fine Arts with an Honours in Painting at the University of Ottawa where she studied painting mainly under Leslie Reid. Her oils at the point focused mainly on male nudes, however now that she lives in the Middle East her work has developed a focus on the minute moments with people as she tries to better understand them. In her art she look at the experience of those around her and captures the beauty they possess through all the uncertainty in their lives. Whether that uncertainty is parenthood, the pandemic, or the every day difficulties of living. After a decade long hiatus in her practice, she has come back to Art since becoming a mother. Although her themes have significantly changed in that time. Through all the stress of motherhood, she has discovered a new focus that she did not possess b...

I studied Art at the University of Ottawa, in Ontario, Canada. I focused on painting under the tutelage of Prof. Leslie Reid, but also took classes in drawing and photography. Before that in my final year of high school I attended lessons a the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Selected Visual Art History

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
One Night Stand: Your Sex — 2009
La Petite Mort Gallerie, Ottawa, Ontario
One Night Stand: Aspect — 2008
La Petite Mort Gallerie, Ottawa, Ontario
Evoke — 2008
The Black Tomato, Ottawa, Ontario
Patterned Peers -- 2008
Victoire, Ottawa, Ontario
Figure Works — 2006
Gallery 115 - University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Yesterday, Today, Every Day - 2021
(Online) Art Mums United
Come Outside - 2021
(Online) Circle Space, Norwich, UK
De(Re)Construction — 2007
100 Laurier, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Third Annual Juried VASA Art Exhibition — 2006
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
Second Annual Juried VASA Art Exhibition— 2005
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario