Iliodora Margellos b. 1985
Iliodora Margellos has a multidisciplinary body of work that involves drawing, painting, sculpture, site-specific installations, embroidery and performance. Over the years, she has developed a kaleidoscopic visual universe where we encounter delicate expressive gestures materialized through meshes, fabrics, threads, drawings on paper, beads and other materials.
Consciously occupying the fluid space between abstraction and representation, Margellos examines questions that deal with loneliness, anger, restlessness, resilience and human interaction. Since 2016, her artistic research has led her to embroidery as a way of personal expression, using needle and thread as a different kind of drawing that is related to patience, the passing of time and self-healing. Despite their attentive and meticulous making process, Margellos’ works come across as calm, fresh and effortless, allowing their rich colors and textures to create spontaneous emotions that are conveyed with honesty and restraint. Her works often evoke natural landscapes and quasi-pagan settings, acting as a metaphor for human psychological states and alluding to an understanding of the human body through its bare, unmediated interaction with nature.
The beauty and dexterity inherent in every work by Margellos truly reveals itself on close inspection. The smaller scale of the works and the detail which she has chosen to work with require the viewer to look closely and observe how perfectly executed every detail is. It is fascinating how a few well-placed stitches and a pair of beads transform into a miniature plant or a sunset smaller than your thumb. Her recent embroideries are like micro-sculptures placed on the surface of the work, together composing landscapes full of emotion and subtle poetry.
Iliodora Margellos was born in Minneapolis, USA in 1985. She graduated from Yale University in 2006 with a BA in Art, and later on she worked at the studio of Peter Halley in Chelsea, New York, until 2007. She expanded her artistic practice with studies in drawing at the Salzburg Academy of Fine Arts in Austria. Her work has been exhibited in art spaces and international art fairs like the Parnassos Literary Society in Athens, the Museum of Greek Modern Culture, Untitled Miami Beach, Baert Gallery in Los Angeles, Dio Horia Gallery in Mykonos, Remap 4 in Athens, Casa Internazionale delle Donne in Rome and Louise Bourgeois’ Sunday Salons in New York.
The artist lives and works in Athens, Greece.
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Iliodora MargellosI Try To Protect You (AM), 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, glass beads44 1/8 x 34 5/8 x 2 1/8 in
112 x 88 x 5.5 cm -
Iliodora MargellosI Try To Protect You (PM), 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, crystal & glass beads44 1/8 x 34 5/8 x 2 1/8 in
112 x 88 x 5.5 cm -
Iliodora MargellosDoudou, 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on acrylic-coated metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, glass beads24 3/8 x 24 3/8 in
62 x 62 cm -
Iliodora MargellosStudy for "I Try To Protect You (AM)", 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, glass beads11 1/4 x 8 5/8 x 1 1/8 in
28.5 x 22 x 3 cm -
Iliodora MargellosStudy for "I Try To Protect You (PM)", 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, glass beads11 1/4 x 8 5/8 x 1 1/8 in
28.5 x 22 x 3 cm -
Iliodora MargellosStudy for “Doudou”, 2021Handmade embroidery and weaving on acrylic-coated metal screen, yarn, mohair yarn, blue jeans thread, floss, Rochefort & Tonkin thread, string, glass beads9 1/8 x 9 1/8 x 1 1/8 in
23 x 23 x 3 cm -
Iliodora MargellosOpening (The Threshold Of A New Home Is A Lo(v)ely Place), 2022Handmade embroidery on tie-dyed canvas, floss, mirror, wood24 3/4 x 17 1/8 x 1 in
63 x 43.5 x 2.5 cm -
Iliodora MargellosSecurities (Castles Fall From The Air), 2021Handmade embroidery on voile fabric, tie-dyed canvas, floss22 1/4 x 19 1/8 x 1 3/8 in
56.5 x 48.5 x 3.5 cm -
Iliodora MargellosSecurities (Happiness Is Concrete), 2022Handmade embroidery on tulle, felt, birdcage veil net & tie-dyed canvas, cotton fabric, yarn22 1/4 x 19 1/8 x 1 3/8 in
56.5 x 48.5 x 3.5 cm -
Iliodora MargellosSecurities (Security Is Given Magic), 2022Handmade embroidery on maline fabric, tie-dyed canvas, floss, thread and 24k gold coated thread22 1/4 x 19 1/8 x 1 3/8 in
56.5 x 48.5 x 3.5 cm -
Iliodora Margellos00:20, 2020Handmade embroidery on tie-dyed canvas, beads (Venetian hand-blown glass, pearls, garnet, glass)21 1/4 in diameter
54 cm diameter -
Iliodora MargellosMoirai, 2021Handmade embroidery on tie dyed canvas, beads
(Swarovski crystal, glass, hand blown Venetian glass)23 1/4 in diameter
59 cm diameter -
Iliodora MargellosBête Noire, 2020Handmade embroidery on cotton fabric, floss, blue jean thread, glass & wooden beads, sequinsFabric: 25 5/8 x 26 in (65 x 66 cm)
Famed: 27 1/2 x 28 in (70 x 71 cm) -
Iliodora MargellosDoing/Undoing (3), 2018Handmade embroidery, thread on canvasFabric: 18 1/2 x 24 3/8 in (47 x 62 cm)
Framed: 28 x 34 1/8 in (71 x 86.5 cm) -
Iliodora MargellosDoing/Undoing (1), 2018Handmade embroidery, thread on canvasFabric: 18 1/2 x 24 3/8 in
47 x 62 cm
Framed: 28 x 34 1/8 in
71 x 86.5 cm
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SUMMER GROUP EXHIBITION
Melinda Braathen, Paolo Colombo, Pam Evelyn, Reuben Gordon, Iliodora Margellos, Francesca Mollett, Jebila Okongwu and Sophie Wahlquist 24 Jul - 18 Sep 2021Baert Gallery is pleased to present a Summer Group Exhibition featuring Melinda Braathen, Paolo Colombo, Pam Evelyn, Reuben Gordon, Iliodora Margellos, Francesca Mollett, Jebila Okongwu and Sophie Wahlquist. This group...Read more -
Color is an Act of Reason
Jasmin Blasco, Melinda Braathen, Francesca Gabbiani, Reuben Gordon, Amy MacKay, Iliodora Margellos, Jebila Okongwu 3 Aug - 14 Sep 2019 -
Iliodora Margellos & Francesca Gabbiani
10 Feb - 24 Mar 2018
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Iliodora Margellos
Group exhibition “Beautiful“ by Dio Horia Contemporary Art Platform, Parnassos Literary Society, Athens, Greece March 2, 2019March 2 - April 6, 2019 Eleven contemporary visual artists from Greece and Cyprus in dialogue with the Parnassos Literary Society historical collection. Within the...Read more -
Iliodora Margellos
Solo exhibition “One Sun for All“, Dio Horia, Mykonos, Greece May 27, 2018May 27 – June 23, 2018 Margellos’s multidisciplinary work sits in between figurative and abstract art practices and focuses on the discovery and understanding of...Read more