Andrea Spiridonakos: Without You (I’m Just An Empty Shell)

From the Artist:

The unique, raw natural beauty and deep history of Newport has served as a main impetus for innovative new work that I am creating while in residence at Newport Art Museum. Honoring Newport’s exceptional natural environment as a direct inspiration, I’ve used the seashore, and oysters specifically, as a main catalyst for creation. The inventive, functional art piece is based off of the shell shape of a Newport oyster species, opens with a hinge and is hand-crafted out of felted wool that I sourced from local Rhode Island sheep farms. This experimental design functions as a chair when the shell is opened and is an imaginative work of fantasy that endures as a surreal yet specific reminder of the people, culture and way of life that I’ve experienced during my time as AiR at Newport Art Museum.

Sheep have been grazing on the grasses in the Newport area since as early as 1637 and their wools remained an important product of the Newport settlement from then through the 19th century. By researching, sourcing and using various wools from local Rhode Island sheep farms, the artwork I create will build a connection between the past history of the area and the current farmers of the area today.In a similar way, shellfishing and consumption of oysters from Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island’s coastal salt ponds has been an important part of Rhode Island’s history. Indigenous oyster fisheries persisted for thousands of years where oysters were woven into broader cultural, ritual and social traditions. But by the 1920s, the oyster industry in Rhode Island was nearly decimated by various types of pollution, including large quantities of oil floating on the waters of the rivers, bay and tributaries of the region. Oysters are the unsung hero of the sea, where each adult oyster can clean up to 50 gallons of water a day, as nature’s water filtration system. Using the oyster as the inspiration for the artwork I create during this residency, will evoke lessons learned in the past on the dangers of pollution and how we can strive to live more sustainably.

About the Artist:

Andrea Spiridonakos has a practice driven by process, experimentation, and detail, through various mediums such as fiber art, decorative art, and installation. Spiridonakos holds a degree in Fashion Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She began her career as a professional ballerina who danced leading roles on stages across the US & Europe to literary acclaim. Now, as the creative force behind her studio, Spiridonakou, her debut fashion collection sold at NYC’s legendary Bergdorf Goodman. Spiridonakos has exhibited at Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris) in collaboration with the Métiers d’Arts, Chanel, the Bergdorf Goodman windows (NYC), FAU Ritter Gallery (Boca Raton), Big Art Now Gallery (West Palm Beach) and solo exhibitions at the Coral Gables Museum and the Miami Design District.

Her artwork is acquired into the permanent collection at the DeYoung Museum (San Francisco) and in private collections in the US. She was selected as part of the “Excellence In Fibers IX” juried exhibit for Fiber Art Now magazine (cover, Winter 2024) & featured in and on the back cover of Assouline’s book “Miami Beach” (2020). Andrea is a 2020 Knight Foundation NEW WORK grantee, a Miami Artist Support grantee, an FSF scholar and a Critic’s Choice Award (2015) through FIT. She’s created hand-painted textiles for Isabel † & Ruben Toledo as well as designed a 2023 world premiere commission for Miami City Ballet by choreographer Pontus Lidberg.