Author: Athena Xenakis

Since 2017, I have taken a hiatus from physically creating art, following the conclusion of my vintage journey. In 2023, I have come full circle, returning to my artistic roots. My studio has become a sanctuary of creation, where my spiritual practice is reborn through my art. In my work, I delve into both this world and other dimensions, a practice that has been integral to me since I began creating art as a three-year-old child. Art permeates every aspect of my life; everything I do is infused with a creative process. My works are not only depictions of my inner world but also explorations of the universal, mystical, and unexplainable phenomenons.

My art is abstract, serving as a direct channel for images that flow seamlessly from my mind onto the canvas with little forethought. These pieces are instinctive and spontaneous, layered in a minimalist form to reflect the many layers of a human lifetime. Each painting is then wrapped in cotton or silk gauze, representing the veils every soul encounters during its human journey. The stitching embodies the tension experienced in life and the connections that bind us all.

Currently, I am immersed in creating a comprehensive body of work, having produced numerous paintings. I plan to exhibit my creations soon and aspire to enter the Paddington Art Prize.

You can follow my artistic journey daily on my Instagram @Athenaxart

In Case you didn’t know i’ve been a huge vintage collector my passion has become so evolved i’ve decided that i now need to also share this aspect of myself with the world as you probably have noticed my intense creative thirst doesn’t stop at art.

ART is the main source that i guess all my other creative personalities draw from. In the coming months I will be sharing some of my vintage curated collections with you all and I cant wait to take you on this trip with me,

I’ve always dreamt of Athenarizing the world!

By inspiring others around me and making everything just that little bit more winsome.

Welcome to my website, If you are wondering who I am, I have been here for a long time Destiny has brought me to this beautiful place of sharing my Art with the world.

I am unconventional, innovative, imaginative, expressive. I AM ATHENAX.

PAINTING has been my life’s Passion, in-between raising a young family and designing jewellery for LEVENDI  jewellers.

Whilst maintaining my art career, I have also involved myself in styling and decorating numerous private homes and also just recently Revamped and decorated the New boutique for LEVENDI jewellers. I am a creative woman whom loves beauty and style and I have this immense need to share it with the world. Life is truly fulfilling when we follow our true self and passions as we then become alined with our true purpose and live a meaningful life.

This year I have decided to paint Enrico and Giovanni Paradiso with partner Marco Ambrosino, owners of the dimly lit Italian bistro Fratelli Paradiso. It sits quietly confident on Challis Avenue in Potts Point, arguably the best-looking street in this energetic, lustrous and Parisian-like neighbourhood. Locals swarm here daily for their morning coffee, freshly baked pastries and scrambled eggs. This would arguably be one of Sydney’s best food institutions and meeting points, where anyone who is anyone can be seen at some point in Potts Point. In the evenings turning into one of the hottest places to dine and wine. This year the partners were stuck in the middle of the controversy with Sydney’s infamous lockout laws. Their blackboard quote “free wine” (referring to natural wine) was the center of the media frenzy, when police speculated that they were creating irresponsible drinking at their 10 William Street Paddington restaurant/wine bar venue. The boys kindly sat for me in their small Italian style bar, 10 William Street in Paddington over a glass of organic, orange wine and plenty of sparkling water, we were able to come up with this year’s painting.
The title of this years portrait ‘Free Wine Free Life’, 167 x 137

Thanking, Marco Ambrosino, Giovanni Paradiso and Enrico Paradiso.

Athena Xenakis

Athena’s philosophical and critical coherence, as artist, designer, stylist and spiritual philosophical student, that single-minded conscientiousness which has marked her actions in each of those incarnations, was forged, albeit out of a body of work already formed, in those upcoming months of creating new works.  It is a matter of a prevailing spirit and feeling, an atmosphere of creativity, the implications of which went beyond matters of metier and style.  Athena places herself in single intuitive pressure in rediscovering her former rhythms, essentially abstracting and configuring of elements, from past imagery and referring to earlier works. Those dispositions of regurgitated imagery of colour and shape whose interrelations determine the spatial dynamics of the imagery that she portrays. It’s visual effect and affective impact, whether it is figurative or non-figurative in intention.

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist and the less the artist does the better.” 

‘Athena Xenakis ‘ Αθήνα Ξενάκη ….

Every time I am in the studio working on the next piece there is an instant disconnect from the outside world. All  communications evolve around the eternal and spiritual connection, I have with my essence and the dimensions of something so abstract only art could possibly record the vibrations and signals from a higher consciousness known to most of us as God. The Art is there to serve God and what he needs to communicate to the rest of us. Identifying one’s self through the art can open the doorway to a visual exploration, not only on this plain but in other dimensions that have not yet been explored or scientifically proven, therefore art conversations can start intermediately between the known and the unknown. The obligation every artist carries when communicating these messages is clear to be truthful to the practice of allowing the work to be as raw as the message filters through.  The work has no purpose other than the purging of the soul and the communication between spiritual world and superficial life. 

-Athena Xenakis

Title  ‘Its all real and illusory’ 76x76cm

Athena Xenakis a Sydney based artist with a Greek heritage. Born in Australia in 1975, raised in Athens Greece with a formative education in Athens Greece. 1993-1995 Diploma in fashion and textile design ATCO Athens, Returning to Australia in 1997. Completed a Bachelor in fine arts 1999, at NAS with a major in sculpture, National Art School Darlinghurst Sydney. Since then she has partaken in numerous group exhibitions whilst practicing art and developing, her methodology at Comber street studios. Simultaneously pursuing her interests in interiors, working on various styling projects and consulting visual solutions in the aesthetic domain. Previous solo exhibitions included: Installation work, sculptures and her paintings.

Solo Artist Exhibitions :

2007 solo exhibition “Transitions of the masked face beyond spirit” Mary Place Gallery, Paddington.

2008 solo exhibition “Out of this World” Global Gallery, Paddington.

2010 solo exhibition “The Forbidden one” Global Gallery, Paddington.

2014 solo exhibition “Veils of a Cryptic Message from the Soul” Queen Street Gallery, Woollahra.

Group Artist Exhibitions :

1998 group exhibition “Diaspara” The Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown.

1999 group exhibition “D-TOUR” Cell Block Gallery, East Sydney.

2000 group exhibition “Greek-Australian Contemporary Exhibition” The Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown.

2008 group exhibition “Global Artist” Global Gallery, Paddington.

2009 group exhibition “Do You Remember Patrida?” Kudos Gallery, Paddington.

2010 group exhibition “Global Artist” Global Gallery, Paddington.

2010 group exhibition “Art Expo” Royal Hall, Hordern Pavilion Moore Park.

2015 group exhibition “Lemnos – the Greek dimension in the ANZAC Centenary” Embassy house of Greece, The Capital Canberra.

Athena’s methodology to painting is her own unique modus operandi. Defining and evolving over the past nineteen years, consequently mastering a simplistic yet complex layered technique. Whilst recording and generating a new invented style for her own abstract themed declarations. Concealing all its complications behind the gauze.