Discussion with artist Marina Kassianidou

Join us on March 11th at 6pm at the Museum of Art Fort Collins, for a discussion with artist Marina Kassianidou. The discussion will be moderated by Aitor Lajarin-Encina and Marius Lehene (Dinghy Rig), who curated Kassianidou’s show Things Keep Their Secrets in the newly named Peter D. Springberg, M.D. Gallery at the museum. The discussion will focus on Kassianidou’s work in the show as well as, broadly, on her artistic practice. In the strand of her work represented here, the artist recreates books from her family archive in Cyprus. Her “re-reading” and re-making stay resolutely with the object and re-materialize it. But that is done by attending not to the Greek text but exclusively to the marks of use and time. What ensues is a poetics of line in which folds, creases, tears, stains, pencil marks, discolorations, and – indeed – wormholes, become a palimpsest whose inventory is taken slowly not to edify but to open towards new readings.

 Marina Kassianidou was born in Limassol, Cyprus, and lives and works between Limassol and Boulder, Colorado, USA. She received a B.A. in Studio Art from Stanford University (CA, USA), an M.A. in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (London, UK), and a Ph.D. in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts (London, UK). Her work has been exhibited internationally at spaces such as the House of Cyprus (Athens, Greece), NiMAC (Nicosia, Cyprus), Thkio Ppalies (Nicosia, Cyprus), Tenderpixel Gallery (London, UK), Stand4 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Yes Ma’am Projects (Denver, CO), Lane Meyer Projects (Denver, CO), Rule Gallery (Marfa, TX), and the NARS Foundation (Brooklyn, NY). She has been awarded residencies at the Ragdale Foundation, Hambidge Center, Ox-Bow, and The Studios at MASS MoCA, among others. She is a recipient of the 2016 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. She is currently Assistant Professor in Art Practices at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Dinghy Rig is a collaborative artist-run art production and exhibition program launched by Aitor Lajarin-Encina and Marius Lehene. Marina Kassianidou’s Things Keep Their Secrets is the first installment of a long-term collaboration with the Museum of Art, Fort Collins, which will be hosting the Dinghy Rig shows in what used to be the building’s safety vault room. The project benefits from the generous support of Peter D. Springberg, MD.

Aitor Lajarin-Encina is an artist, educator, and organizer born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain, in 1977, the year of punk. He is currently living with his partner and two children in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he also teaches as an associate professor in the Department of Art and Art History at CSU. He received his BFA in painting from the University of Basque Country, Bilbao, and his MFA in visual arts from the University of California, San Diego.

Marius Lehene is a Romanian born artist, active in the US and internationally. He lives in Fort Collins, Colorado, with frequents sojourns in Eastern Europe and in India. As an undergradutae, Lehene studied art at the University of Art and Design, Cluj, and economics at the Babeș-Bolyai University, also in Romania. He obtained his MFA in Painting and Drawing from SMU, Dallas, Texas, in 2001. Lehene is currently a professor in the Department of Art and Art History at CSU.