Exhibitions

George Petrides presents Hellenic Heads: A Personal Exploration of Greek History and Culture over 2,500 Years. Petrides, a sculptor of Greek birth, selected six historical periods that are important to Greece’s heritage, combining extensive research with his own family members to pose for the six busts; on their bases, these sculptures stand over 2 meters tall. The six periods are:

• Classical Greece (510 BC to 323 BC)
• Byzantine Empire (330 AD to 1453 AD)
• Greek War of Independence (1821 to 1829)
• The Refugee Crises of the 1920s
• Nazi occupation and Greek Civil War (1941 to 1949)
• The Present

Petrides conducted rigorous research before sculpting each bust, including archaeological artifacts, academic sources, family stories, and historical photographs. Petrides sought out sculptural precedents for each period to study how they addressed similar themes, selecting one or two pieces to serve as touchstones. Then, he asked a family member to pose for him, some “live” and others, who had passed, through photographs and memory.

The Hellenic Heads is an artistic dialogue between the past and present, elucidating the universal character of Greek culture and its fundamental role in shaping Greek identity. This traveling exhibition highlights the necessity of art and the importance of the creator in modern society and conveys intercultural dialogue through cultural diplomacy. Cultural diplomacy is key to the mutual understanding of other nations and their cultural heritage, as it examines human development through artistic creation.”

Learn more on George Petrides’ website: https://www.petrides.art/hellenic-heads-overview

“[Petrides] conveys deeply personal narratives that provoke universal dialogues around key historical events that impact Greek culture and history. Traversing 2,500 years of Greek history, Petrides reveals trauma that is excruciatingly relevant today”

— Natasha Gural, Forbes
Hellenic Heads debuted at the Embassy of Greece to the USA in Washington, D.C. with over 2,000 people seeing it on Europe Day 2022. The exhibition then came to Maliotis Cultural Center in 2022. The exhibition then traveled to the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago, Illinois from July 21 to December 10, 2023. Hellenic Heads is currently on view at the Hellenic Institute in Venice, Italy

Petrides has received wide recognition for Hellenic Heads, including coverage in Forbes and Brooklyn Rail, among others. For more information, please visit Hellenic Heads Selected Press.

About George Petrides

Named a “globally recognized sculptor” by Forbes (2022), George Petrides’ work can be seen around the world, ranging from public sculptures in Greece and Turkey marking the centennial of the destruction of Smyrna in 1922, to a bronze head in the renovated Tiffany’s flagship store at 727 Fifth Avenue in New York. Petrides, who lives and works primarily in New York City, creates sculptures that include figurative and abstract, in sizes ranging from palm-sized to over 12 feet on a base. Born and partially raised in Greece, he is steeped in ancient Greek and Roman sculpture and the later works that were influenced by it (Donatello, Michelangelo, Rodin, Maillol, et al.). Furthermore, modernist sculptors of the mid-20th century such as Giacometti and contemporary sculptors who reference ancient Greek sculpture such as Ray and Bhabha have played an important role in his work. His primary artistic interest is in the human experience in the form of the body and the head, exploring the beauty and the imperfection of people and of life.

Growing up in a family of artists and business people, Petrides’ first career was on Wall Street. He took his first art class at age 32 and continued taking art classes for some 20 years before committing to make art full-time. He studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the New York Studio School (whose famous students include Christopher Wool and Cecily Brown), at the Art Students League, and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. In 2017 he dedicated himself to making art full-time. He has had solo shows in Brookline (Mass), Dubai, Monaco, Mykonos, Southampton (NY) and Washington, DC; and he has participated in multiple artist or group shows, including an exhibition with the important Greek American artist Nassos Daphnis in New York.