Show celebrates global connections to place
Paintings, sculptures
shown at Imogen
BY BRIANA ALZOLA
From paint to stone, artists M.J. Ander-
son and Christos Koutsouras have differ-
ent artistic mediums. But each have experi-
enced some sort of displacement during the
coronavirus pandemic.
‘To the Ends of the Earth’
Featuring works from M.J. Anderson and
Christos Koutsouras through Sept. 6
Imogen Gallery, 240 11th St. in Astoria.
Opening celebration 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday
Anderson is working in Newhalem,
instead of in an Italian studio. Koutsouras
is working in his home in Greece instead of
coming back to work in Astoria.
Both artists’ work will be featured in “To
the Ends of the Earth,” a new show running
Saturday through Sept. 6 at Imogen Gallery
in Astoria.
The show marks the gallery’s ninth anni-
versary. Anderson will be at the gallery
during an opening celebration, set to be
held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday during
Astoria’s Second Saturday Artwalk.
Owner Teri Sund said she’s grateful
that people have continued to support the
gallery.
Both artists have a deep connection to
the Astoria area, but come from elsewhere,
Sund said. “They both bring a little of both
places in their work,” she said.
That connection to place makes their
pieces even more special, she said.
The artists also have an appreciation of
art history, and the classics have made an
impact on their work, Sund said.
“They are masters in their chosen
medium,” Sund said.
Both have shown together at the gallery
before, and Sund said she’s been working
with Koutsouras for just about as long as
the gallery has been open.
Sund said she aims to have a large show
each August to celebrate the gallery’s anni-
versary. The artists, both internationally
known, were perfect for this year’s show,
she said.
Anderson creates stone sculptures. She
said most of her creations come from listen-
ing to the “material itself, to the stone.”
“I begin with a general idea, but the
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Christos Koutsouras’ ‘Exodus.’
A painting by Christos Koutsouras.
M.J. Anderson’s ‘Cloud Study.’
M.J. Anderson’s ‘Double Tailed Mermaid.’
sculpture reveals itself in the carving pro-
cess, keeping me alert to respond to each
cut, to each blow of the hammer,” she said
in an email. “I generally work within a
series, with some series such as my torsos,
mermaids and abstract onyx sculptures last-
ing decades.”
Her various series reflect different parts
of her life and what she’s experienced.
She has a new form, inspired by her
difficulty to concentrate during the first
months of the pandemic lockdown.
“I carved a series of house forms, each
house representing one of us, but grouped
together, still representing a community,”
she said. “I enjoyed working the repeti-
tive nature of multiples and continued with
a series of bottle forms, which are featured
in the Imogen show. The bottles have com-
forting personalities, especially when seen
in groups of three or more (much like in a
Giorgio Morandi painting).”
Anderson started carving in college and
said the process keeps moving her forward
and her brain engaged.
“A reductive process, once the stone
is gone, just like time, there is no going
back,” she said. “Carving stone keeps me in
the present tense, eager to see what is being
revealed — which I find exciting.”
She said creating the sculptures helps
create a history and a record of the time that
she’s living in.
“So much of what happens in the world
is recorded from a male point of view, and
I feel it is my mission to create a lasting
record from a woman’s point of view,” she
said.
For Koutsouras, he said through sharing
his work, he can share experiences with the
audience.
Koutsouras is a painter and will show
a series of acrylic pieces on canvas at
Imogen.
“Everything that can make a mark on
a surface can be a medium to create,” he
wrote in an email.
He chooses the medium to match the
theme he’s working on.
He described his artistic process as
“Layers of thoughts and sensations trans-
formed in colored patches to resemble the
initial experience and source of inspiration,
which is nothing less or more than life in all
its forms.”