Exhibition Dates: 1 - 8 November 2019
Municipal Tobacco Factory
Kavala, Greece
Tobacco Workers' Square
Opening Times:
Weekdays 10:00 - 14:00 & 19:00 - 21:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 13:30, Sunday: 11:00 - 13:30
Artist Biography:
Christine Olga Smith grew up in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Her work as an artist and designer has brought her to an understanding that the process of discovering, exploring the magnificence of nature, the unique identity of humanity's many cultures, the beauty of art and civilization through superb design can help enlighten the whole world...and then around again. She hopes to have the opportunity to simultaneously share this knowledge and learn in return.
The Road to the Church of Prophet Elias, Kavala, Greece, 30 x 25 cm, oil on linen, 2018
Her design project My Sun II was selected from a competition and exhibited in Views Bahrain with Al-Riwaq Gallery, and her short animation, Like, Share & Follow: Sea Turtles Hatching, was exhibited as part of the Post Studio Micro Residency Show, Houston, Texas, 12/’16. In 2017 at Art Bab, Bahrain the Blue Fig Art booth showing her original paintings and prints of Bahrain was a great success, where most works sold. Most recently she organized, designed and exhibited a show in Porto Heli, Greece with the exhibit entitled, The Children of Morea - similar works were displayed at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi in April 2014, then subsequently in New York in 2016. She is now working on a public art project Healing Illustrations Series, a visual arts project for social benefit.
The subject is the psychological and spiritual improvement of humanity through art and visual communication. The concept is to have a fresh approach the ordinary art that decorates hospitals as well as images that show imaginary scenes and "daring" ideas with unusual color combinations, but which refer to eternal ideas.
Christine graduated from Parsons School of Design (Paris & NY) with a degree in Design for Communication in 2008, with an emphasis in motion graphics, and founded her own art space in Porto Heli, Greece, dedicated to cultivating and promoting contemporary art practices internationally.
The View from the Boulder at the Church Dedicated to Prophet Elias – East View, Kavala, 41 x 51 cm, oil on canvas, 2019
Her professional experience has been in successfully coordinating exhibitions, managing artists and working with clients as well as designing print and web media for the exhibits and her arts business. She has exhibited in Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Nations in Geneva, with artists from the Middle East (’10), in New York at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice (’12), at the Poseidonion Grand Hotel in Spetses (’13) where she has curated exhibits, at SG Gallery in St. George Lycabettus (“Dreams and Think Positive” Nov. & Dec. ’11) and the Evgenidou Foundation (Eco ’09), in Athens.
Having grown up in Saudi Arabia, she feels strongly connected with Arab culture and uses her upbringing as a reference in her work; and a Greek-American both countries’ heritage provide an unlimited source of inspiration. She also works to connect to people through art and culture by curating exhibitions and promoting other artists; for example along with the Royal Saudi Embassy in Athens and the Al-Baylasan Art Center, Al-Khobar, she organized the first group exhibition of Arab women artists in Greece, in Athens and Porto Heli in 2009. In 2010 she co-conducted a workshop for printmaking at the Saudi Aramco Summer Arts Program.
Her art and design work, as well as the artists she represents, can be viewed at www.bluefigart.gr and www.behance.net/christineosmith.