THE ATHENIAN
April 1982
OPY ZOYNI –Medusa Art Gallery – Contemporary Graphics
Last month, Opy Zouni held two simultaneous exhibitions, one at the Medusa Art Gallery, and a second at Contemporary Graphics where a small environment was installed. Zouni remains preoccupied with the creation of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface by means of optical illusion. At Contemporary Graphics, this was demonstrated in an installation consisting of a wall on which black vertical lines appear to recede, as it were, into the space behind. Her work stems from the tradition of Mondrian’s theories of Neo-Plasticism, and for this reason, her abstract style, in which color and line are of paramount importance, can be termed geometric.
Zouni, at times, strives to give the illusion of space, or void in literal terms. As a consequence, she very often ignores both the rectangular format and the flat surface of the painting by cutting out openings or cutting away part of the rectangular in order to indicate the depth or space beyond the flat surface. A new element in her most recent work is the overt use of brushwork, a deliberate moving away from disciplined abstraction towards painting. Here, the paint has the distinctive texture pertaining to the personal stroke of the artist, in contrast to the smooth industrial finish of her earlier painted surfaces.
