ELEANNA ANAGNOS | Lucid | April 7 – May 25, 2024

Eleanna Anagnos works with paper pulp to create objects that function as active agents capable of projecting worldviews and perceptions and of creating magic. Her artistic practice lies at the unique intersection of painting, sculpture, architecture and construction. Concerned with researching and — literally — digging into the material substratum of the locales where she lives and the rich cultural history of the people who live there, Anagnos brings to life a visceral viewing experience that requires not just looking, but also absorbing and consuming.

This new body of work combines sculpted paper pulp, pigment, found material and cast objects to bridge the gap between the corporeal and the spiritual. Earthen tones dominate abstract pieces that investigate expanded consciousness, primal memory, symbol-making, touch, ritual, color and meaning formation. Anagnos’ process leads to work that is haptic, tactile and introspective.

This debut in Chicago — an important opportunity to present a new body of work to her hometown community — is a significant step for an artist whose life has been built around establishing connections in other rich and diverse settings. Most recently, living, working and raising her young daughter in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City, she sought out artists and craftspeople with expertise in nuanced areas of art making, learned from them and responded with her own enigmatic and visionary objects. She finds inspiration and discovers new matrices for her creative concerns within these varied contexts. What the artist encounters, sees, breathes, feels and hears at each place she lives adds layers of sensation to each work. This combination of immersion, collaboration and exposition brings a vital depth and richness to Anagnos’ practice.