Demitra Copoulos. Occurrence 1-3, Ink and Graphite on Paper 13x13
I knew Demitra Copoulos’ work fairly well before visiting the Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point to see her show, “Imaginary Experiences: An Unserious Examination.” Or, I thought I did. The day before planning on meeting her at the space for a walk-through, I happened to have an unexpectedly illuminating exchange with a local artist about the nature of the creative process. Our conversation was about what it means to be in that mythically easy “groove” in the studio, and it helped spawn some premature introductory notes about Copoulos’ show that I wrote down on the back of a receipt…notes I was compelled to scuttle after spending an hour with her in the gallery the following day.
I had always thought of Copoulos’ gestural and amorphous drawings as “groovy” and “easy” in the best possible sense. Easy like Sunday morning; when marks dance to impulsive internal rhythms without hesitation and more profound concepts cheer supportively from the subconscious rafters. When unlabored work flows from the hand, as if it’s making itself. Indeed, Copoulos’ drawings at Grove possess these qualities, but they also possess a dimension tied to the labors and thoughts of the personal that I didn’t expect.
The framed pieces in the main gallery—all ink on/or graphite on paper, between 9 and 21 inches in various orientations—demonstrate the fluidity I initially anticipated. Works like Metamorphosis, and two fine Untitled drawings with vertically arranged forms that look almost like scorched paper, possess an organic freshness that hesitation wouldn’t allow. These are abstract one-take drawings whose credibility depends on sureness and confidence, and they have it, totally. One could peel through a folio of these one-by-one and lose themselves for hours.
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However, creeping into her mix of bulbous, wire-skinned abstract forms are more plaintive, representational drawings of chairs and beds that abandon the notion of improvisational abandon. These objects bring us out of that realm of interior meandering, and into a more purposeful and symbolic terrestrial space. This, I found out through our productive conversation, is a supremely meaningful aspect of her work. Copoulos considers her practice as a trace of personal episodes in her life, where the objective and non-objective all play a part. It was only as I processed our conversation that I noticed her anguished looking life-size figurative sculpture in the window entitled Yes/No, Yes/No, Yes/No. I wasn’t sure it was hers initially, but it eventually made sense given our back-and-forth. As it turns out, the piece was made during an extremely traumatic moment in her life and is metaphorically integrated into all of her work.
The back courtyard of Grove features impressive abstract line paintings on Plexiglas sheets arranged in geometric formations. The architectural drawings look especially good in the garden, taking in light and spraying it back out, all the while showcasing some alluring forms that reflect the pieces on paper inside. I initially saw these pieces as a separate body of work, and expressed this thought to her, to which Copoulos revealed how she makes the work in loose sketches before finishing them in paint. She continued to mention how she thinks of the act of drawing as a kind of psychic commitment, as a metaphor for interpreting and processing the world around her. And all of a sudden her thoughts connected the work inside and out, all of it finally feeling like a single emotional and personal gesture by the time I departed.
The show left me with a paradox. That there are two ways to look at art: with context and without it. It’s a forced and somewhat false dichotomy, but it’s telling. We are burdened to live on a sliding scale that presents two oppositional scenarios for esthetic appreciation, contradictory, but both acceptable in their moments: to be excited by blind accident or to be educated by supplemental knowledge. As makers and viewers, we’re all navigating those straits and trying to gain some kind of satisfaction, or at least equilibrium. And in this case, conversation righted my ship and led me deeper into her work.
