Helen Mudie-Ioannidou

Alain Vaissiere
July 9, 2021
MAJO
July 9, 2021
 

The sculpture becomes a body, becomes a figure, becomes a person, becomes a friend.

Helen Mudie-Ioannidou Sculptures

Artist Statement

Why do Helen Mudie-Ioannidou’s sculptures touch you?

Part of the answer is in the tactile, sensual, immediate way that you are drawn to the bodies.

They seem to have paused for a moment before life resumes, an instant captured before they move away. They invite your action, to touch and explore, and your reaction, to consider how still life can become.

Part of the answer is less visible, more emotional. The figures convey the essence of a being, the spirit of a person, the impression that you have already met and known each other.

The artist however will not express this in words, she conveys everything through the form, the physical and the metaphysical, the shape and the spirit.

The sculpture becomes a body, becomes a figure, becomes a person, becomes a friend.

Alan Mudie

Helen Mudie-Ioannidou Biography

Helen was born in Scotland, where she studied art at school and college. After graduating as a teacher, she moved to Greece, where she was inspired by the vibrant culture, people and landscapes. 

She then moved to Turkey and for six years taught art and music at the Istanbul International Community School. While there, she directed and designed sets and costumes for school musicals including “Cats” and “Grease”. She also found time to paint and sculpt, captivated by the people and scenes around her – old men in coffee shops, young shoe shiners, old ladies with weather worn faces, farmers working the fields.

When Helen moved back to Greece, she taught art at a local children’s home in Paleon Faliron. She was also very keen to continue her studies and took courses in life drawing, art history and ceramics at the Art Painting Centre in Glyfada. Here, she had the opportunity to sculpt life models directly from clay. 

Helen's love of the human form, the body and it's language inspires her figurative work. When she sculpts from life, she does not strive to produce an exact likeness, but hopes to capture the essence of the sitter.

She works mainly in stoneware clay preferring to form her pieces using coils of clay and uses a variety of firing techniques. She also uses glazes, patinas, stains and wax to get the finish she wants. Selected sculptures are cast in limited editions in bronze.

Her work – paintings drawings and sculpture – has been shown in group exhibitions in Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Scotland.

In 2004, she had her first solo sculpture show, at the Egina Aegina Gallery in Greece.

Followed in May 2007 by ‘The Embrace’ at the Art Gallery Café, Voula, Greece. In November 2007 at the Sismanogliou Palace, Beyoglou, Istanbul, Turkey.

In July 2009 ‘Reflections’ Art Studio Gallery, Mykonos, Greece and in August 2014 by ‘Sculpture’ at the Egina.Aegina Gallery, Aegina, Greece

In 2007 she received a Highly Commended Award for her exhibit ‘Sisters’ at the Moray Arts Club in her native Scotland.

Her work is in the collection at the Greek Embassy in Ankara and in private collections worldwide. 

Helen has been a member of the Greek Chamber of Fine Arts since 2009.

Solo Sculpture Exhibitions

  • August 2004 Egina Aegina Gallery, Aegina Greece
  • May 2007 ‘The Embrace’ Art Gallery Café, Voula, Greece
  • November 2007 Sismanogliou Palace, Beyoglou, Istanbul, Turkey
  • July 2009 ‘Reflections’ Art Studio Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
  • August 2014 ‘Sculpture’ Egina.Aegina Gallery, Aegina, Greece

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • April 2005 Moray Arts Club , Members Exhibition, Elgin ,Scotland
  • July 2006 Elgin Town Hall, Open Exhibition, Elgin, Scotland
  • April 2007 Moray Arts Club, Members Exhibition, Elgin, Scotland - Highly Commended Award
  • September 2009 Diadromi Kalitechnon during the Pistachio Festival, Aegina, Greece
  • November 2009 Art centre Glyfada, Retrospective Exhibition, Technopolis, Gazi, Athens
  • November 2009 Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition , Maroussi, Athens
  • June 2010 Athens Fine Arts Festival, Gounaropoulos Museum, Zografou, Athens
  • September 2010 Ceramic Pathways, Archaeological Museum, Aegina, Greece
  • October 2010 Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Maroussi, Athens
  • March 2011 Anima Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • July 2011 ‘When Clay Becomes Art’, 3 ceramic artists, Theodora Chorafa, Vassilis Papaioannou and Helen Mudie- Ioannidou : Organized by the Art Studio Mykonos at the Municipal Art Museum, Mykonos, Greece
  • September 2011 Diadromi Kalitechnon, Egina Aegina Gallery, Aegina, Greece
  • November 2011 Fine Arts Exhibition, EEDDA, Melina Merkouri Cultural Center, Athens, Greece
  • January 2012 Ceramist Traces, Old Arsakeon, Patra
  • June 2012 Contemporary Ceramics, Centre of Arts, Eleftherias Park, Athens
  • October 2012 50th Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Marousi
  • October 2013 51st Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Maroussi
  • November 2013 Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul, Turkey
  • October 2014 ‘Resistance Now’ EETE Greek Chamber of Fine Arts, Municipal Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
  • November 2014 52nd Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Maroussi
  • September 2015 ‘Modern Myth’3 ceramic artists ,Clio Makris, Laure Gaudebert and Helen Mudie- Ioannidou: organized by Aegina and Ceramics, at the Archaeological Museum of Kolona in Aegina, Greece.
  • December 2015 53rd Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Maroussi, Greece
  • August 2016 “Oscillations” , Aegina
  • March 2018 “Nature Inside”curated by Annita Patsouraki at the Depot Art Gallery , Kolonaki
  • October 2018 The Image and the Glance, curator Marina Gonta
  • October 2018 Sculpture Exhibition ,EETE Byzantine Museum, Athens
  • November 2018 Ev- Art meets the Greek language at IETT, Kifissia
  • November 2018 56th Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition, Maroussi
  • December 2018 'Mediterranean , through the poetry of its people', EETE, Municipal Art Gallery of Piraeus
  • Summer 2019 Sculpture Garden at the Aphrodite Beach Resort, Mykonos with Restart Contemporary Art Platform
  • November 2019 Art Thessaloniki with Kapudag Gallery
  • March 2020 Art Ankara, Ankara, Turkey with the Kapudag Gallery
  • November 2020 58th Pan Hellenic Ceramic Exhibition , Maroussi
  • June 2021 6th Ceramic Exhibition, Archaeological Museum of Olympia