Georgia Hourdas

BIO

Georgia Hourdas was born in Tarpon Springs, FL. She began her art career in 2013 at a now defunct DIY venue & gallery known as the Venture Compound, where she helped put on art shows. She received her BFA in painting from the University of South Florida in 2015. In her final year of undergrad, she was invited to join the artist collective Quaid. In 2016 Georgia moved to New York to pursue a career as a painter. Herwork has appeared in Ortega y Gasset, Marvin Gardens, Flux Factory and Underdonk. She is also an active member of the artist-run space Underdonk. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My paintings depict heavenly realms of colorful shapes. Some works are embryonic and womb-like while others are playful and atmospheric. My work leans heavily on biological patterns. The shapes I use are abstracted from recurring forms found in nature, such as coral, flowers, planets and mushrooms.

In contrast to their ambient or photographic backgrounds, the shapes are painted in bold solid colors. Spectral ropes of color weave in between the shapes in a fractal pattern, much like a mycelial network in the Earth’s soil, or the swaying arms of carnation corals in the ocean. I think of the shapes as angelic beings living within a utopian world. While some paintings are simply oil on canvas, I frequently use photographically printed fabric in my work as a readymade background to place my favorite ideal shapes onto, with the goal of making them feel closer to reality in an arcane way.

Interview with Georgia Hourdas

Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in becoming an artist? Can you tell us about some of your most memorable early influences?

I had a somewhat strange childhood. Some of my first memories are climbing in trees and hunting in the woods with my father. Early on I was very interested in creation and death.  I would make sculptures out of twigs and dirt. I had private spiritual rituals that I would perform with the small sets of deer antlers that my father kept from his hunting excursions. 

The first time I ever truly felt the effects of making art was in an elementary art class. I created a drawing with markers in large swirls of color that sparked something deep within me. I held on to the drawing and kept it secret. Whenever I looked at it, I felt the same mysterious power behind the image. I had seen it before, but where? One night laying in bed I remembered where I saw the image: My estranged biological mother was an artist who painted the doors of her home in the exact same pattern. The art that I made brought back the long buried memory of a mother I had but tragically no longer knew. From that moment forward I was an artist. 

Later on when I was 14 I showed my drawings to my great grandmother Athena and she told me that I absolutely must become an artist no matter what so that sealed the deal for my future. 

You are currently based in New York City. What brought you here? Are there any aspects of the city or community that have inspired your work?

When I was 17 living in Tarpon Springs, FL I won a gold key in the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for an analog photograph. I found out upon receiving the award that the acceptance ceremony was in Carnegie Hall in New York City. The ceremony also took place on the day of my high school graduation. I was desperate to go to Carnegie Hall but my parents couldn't quite afford it. The next day I called the head of the school board and asked them to help pay for my trip. At first it was a definite no but they called back a week later and told me to book a ticket! I was overjoyed, I had never been on a plane before either! T

The trip filled me with awe, I had never felt so connected to humanity. On the stage of Carnegie hall I felt the presence of God, destiny and the words of my great grandmother. Everything was gold, parents of all the award winners in the audience cheered in a way I can’t compare to anything else I’ve experienced since! I had to move to New York City! This was the place I belonged. 

Then finally, after graduating with my BFA, in 2016 I moved here with my then Fiancé and now Husband, David Morris, and we’ve been here ever since.

From your IG posts I see that you have a gorgeous studio, with incredible windows. One of my favorite things about many of the studio buildings in New York are those gorgeous big windows and the amount of natural light. What is your studio space like? What makes your space work for your specific needs?

My studio is my small manufactured paradise. It's a large studio that has been subdivided and my spot is 150 sq feet with 15 ft ceilings. 

The window has an insane view of Manhattan. Whenever I feel stuck or things aren’t working I can look out of my window and have the purest reminder possible of where I am and what I am working towards! I can go there in all kinds of states and leave feeling transformed. 

Do you like to stick to a routine or schedule, or does your studio practice vary from day to day? What is an ideal day for you?

I tend to work best in the afternoon into the evening. I like long mornings on my days off and when I get to my studio I have an adjustment period of about an hour.  Most of the time I work for about 6 hours straight except for the nights I head in after work.  I usually put in a minimum of 20 hours in a week around my day job as a Painting Assistant. 

What kind of state do you like to be in when working? How do you get there?

Preparing green tea in my little cast iron teapot is a small ritual that puts me in a great place to work. I always have something set up to work on at different levels of complexity so that I can meet myself where I am that day. Music is definitely integral to my practice but when I grow bored of my own taste, I put a podcast on. I like to think that I can work through the best of times in addition to the worst.

Some of your paintings appears almost totally flat from a distance, but the texture of the surface is really rich and layered. In other works, the surface is intentionally dimensional, and in others there is wonderful play between the photographs and the pigment. Can you talk a bit about your approach to working with the surface of your work, and walk us through your overall process?

I have been using printed fabric in my work since my early days in undergrad. They are digitally printed by an online company. After experimenting with having my photos printed on the different fabrics they offered, I settled on the type that held the image best. The one I chose has a velvety texture and since the images I use are all different sizes, the details look fuzzy rather than pixelated when the image is blown up. 

Years after first discovering this material, I found that I loved the way  it looks with paint sitting on top and began painting flat Matisse like shapes on top. The flatness of the paint is intended to contrast the subtle texture and business of the image background. The images I used in this series are a mix of my iphone pictures and others I scavenge from scientists I follow online. The fabric backgrounds also doubled as a kind of readymade surface. 

Much of your work incorporates motifs of plants, fungi, and living things, though subtly abstracted, they are still recognizable as being inspired by nature. Are you interested in any particular types of flora or fauna?

Yes! I draw a lot of inspiration from nature. I’m very interested in marine biology, mycology as well as microbiology. I try to keep up with the news in these areas of science. Sometimes a scientist I follow on Twitter will post a really cool image of a nudibranch (sea slug) I’ve never seen before and then I have a whole new painting to make!  

Thanks to my great-grandfather who was a sponge diver that immigrated from Greece, I grew up in Florida surrounded by beaches and bayous. So I’ve always had a personal love of aquatic life. Every summer I watch several live streams of deep sea dives operated by a team of marine biologists. It’s really exciting because there are times that you’re watching a fish swimming around that’s in a nearly unreachable part of the ocean. I take screenshots and notes while I watch and listen to the scientists talk about the different species of coral and fish on screen. There’s also been times that I’ve watched the team discover a potential new species! 

I’m also a big fan of mycology, who isn’t these days? Oddly enough I got into reading about mushrooms after reading a bit about irregular fractal geometry. I then read a book on mushrooms and found out about the mycorrhizal network, which is a plethora of small thread-like veins that communicate with one another via chemical signals and make up around 80% of our soil. Both the patterning of the thread-like hyphae and their product (mushrooms) have since wriggled their way into my work. 

You are currently a member of Underdonk, an artist-run exhibition space in Bushwick. I love this space and have seen so many great shows there over the years! Can you tell us a bit about this project and your involvement?

Underdonk is so great! It’s an artist-run curatorial collective that has been in Bushwick for 10 years now. Underdonk was one of the first local galleries I visited after moving to nyc that truly felt like home. Everyone there is so friendly and all the members share an intrepid dedication to art and community. I have curated 2 shows in their space and each one was a big learning experience. 

Curating shows can be challenging! It’s definitely a creative process and has given me a greater understanding and appreciation for professional curators. The last show I curated there, PERPETUAL and NOCTURNAL, was almost an extension of work that I wanted to make. Like an unexpressed element in my work that I could piece together out of the peers whose work caught my eye. I also think that writing a press release can be so much fun if you get a little weird with it. 

Have you had any epiphanies recently that have changed the course of your work or caused you to shift directions?

My work has taken quite a shift in 2023. When this series of work with flat shapes felt more fleshed out I had a studio visit with a friend who found my 100% oil paintings much more compelling. I love a good challenge that comes from a studio visit, so I decided to try painting the backgrounds completely from scratch. I wanted to try a process that felt more simple and free. Right now my work still has photographic backgrounds but they’re entirely oil paint. I use a blur technique similar to Gerhard Richter and then go back in with spectral lines dancing around the parameters of the painting.

Can you share some of your recent influences? Are there specific works—from visual art, literature, film, or music — that are important to you? 

Visual Artists: Henri Matisse, Francious Boucher, Ernest Haeckel, Gerhard Richter, Ross Bleckner, Charline Von Heyl, Sarah Morris, Chris Martin, Albert Oehlen, Yayoi Kusama, Lauren Anias Hussey, Chris Daharsh, Jenna Ransom, Alicia Adamerovitch, Fiona Buchanan, Nicholas Moenich, Morgan Blair, Alessandro Keegan, Tony Palocci, Benny Merris, Annie Vieux, Chris Dorland, Rae Klein, Clinton King, Ragini Bhow, Ida Badal… the list goes on!

Music: Black Sabbath, Cher, Billy Idol, The Fall, Butthole Surfers, Bjork, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr., Boris, Motorhead, Can, Godflesh, Jean Ritchie, Danzig, Madonna, Slayer, Black Flag, Woody Guthrie, Dead Moon, Julie London, Angels of Light, Serge Gainsbourg, Bach, Vivaldi, Bocchereini & Arvo Pärt

I also really love ballet. I saw American Ballet Theater’s production of Giselle this past summer. The movements the dancers make are so incredibly divine. It was such a special performance, I cried twice watching the story play out. The haunting tragedy lives on in my sensitive heart. 

Have you overcome any memorable roadblocks or struggles in your practice that you could share with us?

For a long time I had such a hardened idea of what a painting was supposed to be. I shot myself down a lot and felt very constrained. I had ideas for paintings where I would think ‘I could never possibly paint that, it’s too simple.’ The funny thing about that line of thinking is that my idea of ‘simple’ is wildly different from what other people might think it is! 

Finally I had a big epiphany where I was able to silence that harsh inner critic and just made the damn thing. Now I feel like I've finally given myself permission to make the paintings I’ve always wanted to make. That includes having the freedom to drastically change them as well.

Do you have any tips or advice that someone has shared with you that you have found particularly helpful?

Things will come when the work is ready and The only wasted paint is what’s left in the tube!

What’s coming up next for you?

A group show in January, studio visits with friends and lots of painting!

To find out more about Georgia Hourdas check out her website and Instagram.