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REVIEW

Nicole Economides Explores Nostalgia, Home and the Quest for Identity

Nicole Economides offers a journey through family memories, weaving storytelling and emotion together with her masterful use of imagery and colour.
nicole-economides-callirrhoe Nicole Economides, Birthday blue, 2024, Οil on canvas, 35 x 35 cm (in 12 parts), courtesy the artist and Callirrhoë, Athens
by Biljana Purić / December 1st, 2024

Sunday afternoon often evokes the timeless image of family gatherings. It is not merely a moment in time but also a spatial concept, calling to mind the idea of home—a safe, cozy, and warm place of connection, imbued with nostalgia. Yet, in a world where families are fractured and scattered across the globe, torn apart by wars and conflicts, Sunday afternoon takes on a deeper, almost political significance. It becomes a symbolic counterpoint to contemporary alienation, invoking the possibility of a different kind of collectivity and belonging.

Bearing the same title, the exhibition Sunday Afternoon by Greek-American artist Nicole Economides at Callirrhoë, Athens, delves into these ideas and concepts, exploring the feelings of nostalgia, identity, and home through a body of work inspired by the artist's personal experiences and family history.

Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot
Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot, image Frank Holbein 2024

The works on view are the artist's personal reflections on how identities are impacted by economic migration and the ways language and culture shape different experiences of belonging. The show features paintings that continue her earlier series, Illusion of Home, as a Memory and is presented for the first time at the Athens' gallery. 

Illusion of Home, as a Memory came out of Economide's family history, and takes her grandmother's photographs as its starting point and inspiration. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Economide's grandmother, a migrant in the US, sent annotated photographs to her family back in Greece. Besides serving as sites of memory, these photographs are also testaments to family dynamics across countries and cities. Using them as the starting point, Economide explores their visual aspects but also builds her personal aesthetic of remembering and belonging through them.

Nicole Economides, fruit agora, 2024
Nicole Economides, fruit agora, 2024, Oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm, courtesy the artist and Callirrhoë, Athens

An emblematic piece from the series, Illusion of home, as a memory (Keepsake) grabs attention immediately for its unassuming visual language that derives from a note Economide's family penned down in Greek when they ran a family restaurant in the US. "Here is the kitchen of the restaurant," it reads, while set against the wall on two feta barrels. Illegible for those who do not read Greek, the painting incites a sense of unease and otherness, as we witness a detail that belongs to someone else's world. This feeling of foreignness mirrors the experiences likely faced by Economide's family in the US, where their native language set them apart.

In Sunday Afternoon, another striking example from the show, Economide brings together several considerations from her family's migrant experience. The image captures both the front and back of a postcard, showing the messages and the persons to whom those messages were addressed. It is also a reflection on the family time, that her family members had to spend counting earnings from the restaurant. Other paintings depict tokens of these times, including objects the artist tries to preserve from oblivion – Birthday Confetti, Fruit Agora, and 12 smaller canvases collectively titled Birthday Blue.

Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot
Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot, image Frank Holbein 2024

An aspect of Economide's aesthetic that deeply enhances the contemplative, evoking aspects of her work is her choice of colour. In Birthday Blue, the colour blue gains momentum across twelve canvases as the images gradually fade. In others, rich, warm yellows and pinks take over, symbolizing the comfort of family memories while simultaneously conveying nostalgia and the quest for identity that is inherent in our human experience.

Nicole Economides offers a journey through family memories that transcends personal to gain univesal meaning, seamlessly weaving storytelling and emotion together with her masterful use of imagery and colour. 

The exhibition Sunday Afternoon is on view at Callirrhoë in Athens until January 18th, 2025.

Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot
Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot, image Frank Holbein 2024


Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot
Nicole Economides, Sunday afternoon, installation shot, image Frank Holbein 2024