Venia Bechraki was born in Athens, she studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, won the Onassis Foundation scholarship and continued her studies at the New York University (MFA). She received the Gerondelis Foundation Grand in 2001 and the Jack Goodman Award for Art & Technology in 2002.
Venia has presented her work in solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad: “Off-Target”, Salon De Bricolage, Athens (2014), “La Grèce In & Out: Autoportraits”, Galerie Basia Embiricos, Paris (2010), “Restricted Area”, Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens (2010), ''Strange Weathers'', Melenia Art Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (2009), ''Urban Dwellings”, Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki (2008), “Within-Without'', Zoumboulakis Galleries, Athens (2006), and at Real Art Ways, Connecticut, USA, granted by the National Endowment for the Arts (2003).
Venia has exhibited internationally in major international group shows such as: “George Seferis”, Theocharakis Foundation, Athens (2017), “A certain blue of the sea”, Ionian Parliament, Corfu (2017), “ART ATHINA 2015”, Athens (2015), “Staging the Domestic”, The Hospital Club, London (2014), “Open 15-Flags”, Lido Venice (2012), “Autoportraits Fictions”, Espace Galerie des Femmes, Paris, “Open XII”, Lido Venice (2009), “Face to Faces”, 2nd Biennial of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece (2009), “Art Athina 2009”, Zina Athanasiadou Gallery & Gallery Basia Embiricos, Athens, Greece, “Art Photo Expo Miami”, Zone D and Galerie Basia Embiricos, Miami Art Basel, Miami, USA (2008), “Material Links”, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Shanghai, China (2008), “The Water”, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece (2008), “Heterotopias”, 1st Biennial of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece (2007), “The Chronicle of the Absurd“, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece (2007), “Bodyconnections”, La Maison de la Photographie, Tashkent, Uzbekistan (2007), “Art Athina-International Art fair”, Athens (2004), “11th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean”, Athens (2003), “MFA Exhibition”, Washington Square Galleries, New York (2003), “The Jack Goodman Award Show”, Rosenberg Gallery, New York (2002), “Deconstruction” Angel Orenanz Foundation for the Arts, New York (2002), a.o.
Venia lives and works in Athens.
W. B. Yeats
In her self-portrait photographs, the artist casts herself as protagonist in imaginary scripts and publicly performs private rituals and traditional female roles - often in exaggerated form. She stages paradox scenes in public spaces which reverse stereotypical imagery resulting from advertising, films and the visual art tradition putting into question female identity in a humorous manner.
At once the author of the image and the object of viewing, Venia makes an ironic commentary of certain consumer and domestic patterns of behavior. She uses photography to construct imaginary, at times surrealist, environments that make reference to everyday life. Images that at first sight appear to be documenting a mundane reality, centering on the figure of a woman - the artist herself - challenge conventional restrictions and social taboos. Venia investigates throughout her work gender and identity issues, the relationship between the public and the private, real and fictitious space.
Shifting between the art of performance, photography, the composition of classical painting and a cinematic representation of reality, Venia creates pictures that merge theatrical performances with a documentarian view, exploring the fine line between autobiography and fiction.
