“While elements of landscape painting appeared in Adonis Stoantzikis’ work early on in his career, the artist began his abstract series during the pandemic, which was exhibited at Hydra School Projects for the first time (Lessons Learned, 2023). Coming full circle from his early painterly imagery, Adonis focuses on 3-d haptic swirls of polymer clay and glass, translating his texture research into sculpture. His innovative methods of paint and material application give the object the sense of “letting a thing exist, rather than creating it.” In his abstract sculptures, Stoantzikis builds up cumulative layers of non-representational materials, showcasing a mysterious gradual evolution of matter. Thus, the incidental details and patterns that emerge blur the lines between illusion and reality: they oscillate between presence and absence, the seen and the unseen, suggesting both materiality and void.”

Dimitrios Antonitsis, Hydra 2025