ANASTASIA PELIAS
Across Space and Time (the Divine Feminine)new paintings and sculpture
July 19 – August 26, 2023
PULL QUOTE
The ancient Greek concept about destiny and fate and the impossibility of subverting fate drive this work, as well as the concept of finding purpose in a turbulent and complicated world.
Biography
A N A S T A S I A P E L I A S | | | biography
[lives & works - New Orleans, LA ::: b.1959 New Orleans, LA]
ANASTASIA PELIAS was born in New Orleans, LA to a Greek immigrant mother and a first generation Greek-American father. She earned her BFA from the Newcomb College of Tulane University and her MFA from the University of New Orleans. Pelias is represented by Ferrara Showman Gallery in New Orleans and has exhibited in galleries and museums internationally throughout a career that spans 40 years. Her work has been featured in publications including Hyperallergic, Burnaway, Artnet news, ArtDaily, Forbes, Pelican Bomb and New Orleans Art Review. Pelias’ paintings and sculpture are held in the permanent collections of Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art, Newcomb Art Museum, and McNay Art Museum.
Her work has been featured in notable exhibitions including The Whole Drum Will Sound: Women in Southern Abstraction at Ogden Museum of Southern Art and Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, which originated at Newcomb Art Museum and traveled to the Ford Foundation in New York City. Recent projects include a site-specific sculpture and painting installation commissioned by McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, and a 54-foot mural on the Odeon Building in New Orleans, commissioned by Domain Companies. In 2020, Pelias was awarded a Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist Residency. She was a selected artist in the Prospect.5 Triennial, 2021-22, for which she was a recipient of a Mellon Foundation Monuments Grant for her site-specific, multi-sensory installation, It was my pleasure. Her P.5 sculpture was purchased by Arts New Orleans for the City of New Orleans Percent for Art collection, where it has been permanently re-sited to Saint John Park. In 2024, Pelias was invited to create the monumental sculpture ViVa (& the whole garden will bow) for the Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition presented by the Helis Foundation.
STATEMENT
I am a multidisciplinary artist whose studio practice includes oil paintings on canvas, works on paper, sculpture, site-specific installation, video, sound and scent. Whether I’m working with paint, oil stick, charcoal, ink, salvaged wood, fiberglass–I am always interested in showing evidence of the hand of the artist.
My process is both intuitive and intentional; I am drawn to content and meaning, abstraction and gesture. The power that color holds, and its ability to viscerally affect the viewer is profound, and is an integral part of my visual vocabulary.
My studio is a sacred place where all things are possible. While I am working, I enter a space where I avoid conscious thought. My process is both intuitive and intentional, and I explore whatever materials or methods are necessary in order to realize an idea. Music often takes on a collaborative role in the making of my work, and is perpetually present in my studio, even when music = silence.
I unapologetically embrace subjects of love, sex, death, destiny, and the human experience - in particular the female experience. My art is intimately rooted in the present and deeply evocative of the past. I draw from personal history, especially the dual cultural identity of my native New Orleans and my ancestral roots in Greece. Greek church and family rituals as well as the rich pageantry of New Orleans culture enveloped me in my Greek-New Orleans upbringing and continue to influence my work. Deep ancestral connections that are omnipresent, that resonate even if they are not always understood, find their way into my work.
The human-size scale of my interactions with a variety of media invites the viewer to become immersed in the painting or sculpture as opposed to simply being an observer. I am interested in the experiential moment(s) when the viewer and the artwork interact, and how the work engages with the surrounding architectural space; whether it be in the studio, a public site, or a gallery.
I believe that art has the potential to be a conduit for healing. I want to make work that is full of emotion and visual pleasure.
Curriculum Vitae
1996 MFA, Painting, University of New Orleans
1981 BFA, Painting, Newcomb College of Tulane University
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
The City of New Orleans Percent For Art Collection, New Orleans, LA
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Newcomb Art Museum, New Orleans, LA
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece
Thomas and Dathel Coleman, The Jimmy Club Sculpture Park, St. Rose, LA
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, New York, NY
Alexandra Papadopoulou, Ambassador of Greece to the United States, Athens, Greece
Luciano Benetton Imago Mundi Collection
Iberia Bank Art Collection, Lafayette, Metairie and Shreveport, LA
Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Commack, NY
Four Seasons, New Orleans, LA
The Domain Companies, New Orleans, LA
The Benziger Family, Imagery Estate Wine Collection, Sonoma Valley, CA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 New Work, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2023 Across Space And Time (the Divine Feminine), Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2021 Anastasia Screamed in Vain (painting on loss, longing and love), Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2019 Destiny is Destiny (sing my song), Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018-19 mama, a site-specific installation, McNay Art Museum, commissioned by the museum, San Antonio, TX
2017 Sisters, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2015 Reckless Daughter (in real time), Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX
2013 Ritual Devotion (Two), Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA (catalogue)
Ritual Devotion, Zoya Tommy Contemporary, Houston, TX (catalogue)
2011 Washed (to the sea and other waters), Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2009 Automatics, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2004 Linked: New Paintings, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2001 700 ft. square, Heriard-Cimino Gallery, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Matrilineality, two-person exhibition, Reynolds Ryan Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA (with Artemis Antippas)
2023 School’s Out for Summer, Rockaway Artist Alliance, curated by Christopher Saucedo, Rockaway Beach, NY
Knowing Who We Are: A 20th Anniversary Exhibition, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
2021-22 Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, curated by Diana Nawi and Naima Keith, New Orleans, LA
2020 INSPIRATION IN ISOLATION: Works From Cancelled And Postponed Exhibitions + Works Made In Quarantine, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, Ford Foundation Gallery/ Ford Foundation, curated by Monica-Ramirez-Montagut, New York, NY
2019 Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, curated by Monica Ramirez-Montagut and Laura Blereau, New Orleans, LA
2018 Constructing the Break, Whitney White Linen Night, Contemporary Arts Center, curated by Allison M. Glenn, New Orleans, LA
The Whole Drum Will Sound: Women in Southern Abstraction, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, curated by Bradley Sumrall, New Orleans, LA
Vessels of Mercy, Vessels of Wrath, Barrister’s Gallery, curated by Srdjan Loncar, New Orleans, LA
SELECTED SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS
2024 ViVa (& the whole garden will bow), Poydras Corridor Sculpture Exhibition presented by the Helis Foundation, New Orleans, LA
It was my pleasure, purchased by Arts New Orleans for the City of New Orleans Percent for Art Collection, permanently re-sited to Saint John Park, New Orleans
2021-22 It was my pleasure, Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, curated by Diana Nawi and Naima Keith, supported by Mellon Foundation, New Orleans, LA
2020 The Odeon Mural, Domain Companies commission, The Odeon at South Market, New Orleans, LA
2019 Etsi Einai I Zoi (So is Life), supported by the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
2018-19 mama, McNay Art Museum, commissioned by the museum, San Antonio, TX
2016 Send the power through the foam, Mermaid Lounge Reunion, The Truck Farm, New Orleans, LA
2015 Poydras Painting, Crevasse 22, Prospect.3 Satellite, Poydras, LA
Selected Honors/Awards/Presentations
2025 Artist in Residence, Art Farm at Serenbe, Chatt Hills, Georgia
2024 Unveiling of Anastasia Pelias’ It was my pleasure in Saint John Park, hosted by Prospect New Orleans and Arts New Orleans
Selected Artist, Art in Embassies Program, United States Embassy, Georgetown, Guyana
A guided bus tour/artist talk highlighting Anastasia Pelias' public art works, presented by Ogden Museum of Southern Art and The Helis Foundation, New Orleans, LA
2022 Presenter, The Architecture of Confinement Conference, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (with Syrita Steib and Dolfinette Martin)
2021 The Mellon Foundation Monuments Project Grant supporting Prospect.5 commission
2020-21 Artist in Residence, The Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA
2019 Artist in Residence, The Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
Visiting Artist, University of Colorado Denver
2018 Artist in Residence, The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA
2017 Selected Artist, New American Paintings, No. 130, 2017, The Open Studio Press, curated by Veronica Roberts
