: Angelopoulou Pelagia

Pelagia Angelopoulou was born in Athens, Greece. She studied painting, history of art and mosaics at the University of Fine arts in Athens. While still a student, she worked at the famous Akrotiri excavation on the island of Thera in Greece.

1984-1992: She taught the art of mosaic at the University of Fine arts in Athens Greece.
1991: Series of solo exhibitions in Japanese museums; Tokyo, Osaka and Utsunomiya. Organized by the major publishing group ''Yomiuri Shimbun'' in collaboration with the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs.
1992-2007: Solo exhibitions, private and public commissions in Belgium, Greece, Germany, France, Germany, Netherlands, USA, United Arab Emirates
2008: She held a solo exhibition in the Royal museum of Art and History of Cinquantenaire in Brussels, in the Hall of the Greek antiquities collection
2009: Her work, “Crown” was placed  next to the sarcophagus of his Holiness the Pope, Jean Paul III

Museums and private collections

Angelopoulou's works can be found in Museums private and public collections and in Historical monuments of Europe, Japan, USA

– National Gallery, Athens Greece
– Odakuye Museum Tokyo
– Saint Pantaleon 10th century Romanesque Church-Cologne
– Saint Dimitrios Basilica- 5th century Thessaloniki, Greece
– Sainte Catherine Byzantine Church 10th century, Athens
– Historic City Hall of Cologne

Many essays about her work have been published in newspapers and magazines of Europe, USA, Japan and United Arab Emirates.
 
Since 1995, she lives and wors in Brussels, Belgium.
 
Dr. Dimitris Papastamos, Director of the National Gallery and Alexander Soutzos museum in Athens Wrote:

.....in the mosaic compositions of Pelagia Angelopoulou the two trends are blended in an ideal expression. She takes full advantage of her thorough knowledge of the main achievements that constitute landmarks in the history of mosaics, while making the most of her remarkable technical skill and original inspiration.

.....A really talented painter and mosaicist with an unusual mastery of the various techniques of both fields. Angelopoulou introduces a new concept and gives a new dimension to the art of mosaics...

Prof. Manos Stefanidis (catalogue of Angelopoulou's works published by the Yomiuri Shimbun)

Angelopoulou acts by defined choices, avoiding the danger of an easy “avant-guard'' from a safe corner and a rebellion well ''managed ''aesthetically and socially easy to adopt, trying to give modern pieces of work based on tradition, without an archaic character and to produce synthesis without fear and development of mosaic art to the modern requirements without falling into the trap of imitation.

Stefan Skowron art historian and art critic, Aachen Germany (catalogue of Angelopoulou's works published by the Greek Ministry of culture)

What makes the works of Angelopoulou modern and far superior to those of others is her relentless drive to make them sculptural. Individual elements are stepping out of the surface, joints and shadows become 3-dimensional, hands and plant forms become tangible, small architectural forms are being created and mosaic receives a volume of its own. The image becomes an object which becomes credible because it is visible and belongs to reality. This is achieved because the artist not only uses traditional materials like marble, smaltoes and stones, but has a predilection for those which everyday life has left behind. Thus window frames, beverage cans, bottles, broken crystal and old picture frames become welcome, contemporary form-giving elements. They are all part of a decision on form and aesthetics and confirm the artists positioning in the present. Pelagia Angelopoulou thus connects the present with history. She interweaves the two and gives them a new, potential impact.

However, 3-dimensionality achieves even more in as far as the art form is also becoming autonomous. Whereas, originally, the mosaic was above all the narrative segment of a spatial unit and its incorporated iconography, tied to the building, so to speak, here it acquires, perhaps for the first time, and independent identity. The mosaics of Pelagia Angelopoulou are no longer dependent on the stage which architecture offers and on which they were often constrained to play a minor role (which became more important as the mosaic and architecture drifted apart in the course of time). Angelopoulou's works are selfcontained image creations. Perhaps they are complex assemblies representing not only a recognisable material state, but also connections between times and places, which make myths and ideas, ideals of beauty and greatness “material”. Thus the term 3-dimensionality can also be translated differently, for instance as the transformation of history into the present.

History of art derives the term “mosaic” from the notion “dedicated to muses”. If one lets oneself be drawn into the shapes full of quotations, into the differentiated colours broken by light, the déja-vu experiences of materials from the everyday environment of her works, their material presence, playfulness and elegance, their historical relevance and timeless certainty, one will see how literally Pelagia Angelopoulou takes this notion and in how fascinating a manner she knows to implement this notion in her mosaics.