Dimitra’s Xenaki artwork is figurative and it deals with the human being. Although, in her second solo show, “Prayer”, that takes place in the central hall of Myro Gallery, she moves forward, as she makes a profound research on the matters related with the existence. The form, here, expresses consmogonical anxieties, from a philosophical point of view. The awareness of mortality, becomes the centre of thoughts of the artist, whose painting swings from the thin, ethereal lazes to the violent drippings; The traces of paint, left on the canvas, by the use of tulle, capture light in a metaphysical and symbolic way and this is a technique that Dimitra Xenaki works on, with the wisdom of a expert. And this is what matters… This is the end of the spiritual destination: Wisdom.
Dimitra Xenaki writes about these artworks in her statement “this thematic exhibition, was the result of a spiritual journey that aimed at both revealing and hiding the inner light. We are thirsty for that, but, at the same time, we cannot bear it… It is the greatest desire and the most unbearable fear…It is the taste, the breeze of a hyper power, and the Abyssus, simultaneously… Nietzsche wrote about “Apollo” and “Bacchus”, who live within each artist’s body, spirit and mind, fighting each other… This has to do with each human too, as long as they ‘re aware of their mortality. And this is the tragedy of our existence. We are all sparks of God and mortals at the same time…When I started working on this project I was quite inspired by Miguel de Unamuno, the Spanish Philosopher and Humanist. His philosophy was the springboard of my artworks. He believes that, as long as all humans are aware of their mortality, they are anxious about leaving their trace in this world. And this worry constitutes the spark of creativity. Love and death look like a dipole that forms an axis around which everything rotates and builds the structures of the cosmic space. Futility, that comes in our mind automatically, now turns into its opposite and becomes the source of creation. When we create, we overcome our mortal human limits and connect to the pure roots of our existence, to the higher source of creation. Creation, thus, is a magical place, where I meet my divine nature, that is perfect, omniscient, indestructible and timeless.
All these worries and spiritual quests were the framework, in which the artworks of this thematic area were born. I call them “Cosmogonicals”. They waver from the real to the imaginary and from the realistic to the dreamy and to the metaphysical. They constitute a kind of metaphysical realism or dreamy realism. The Light, here, is not “real”. It breaks the rules and the limits and it acquires surreal, supernatural, or rather, metaphysical dimensions. It overcomes the obstacle of “here and now”, it skips whatever is temporary and perishable and it tends to become connected with the hyper source of the existence, with the higher truth. And, under this light, in these paintings, the figures beg, fold, perch, cry, shiver, thirsty to taste this inner light, but at the same time fully absorbed by it. They even seem to be abolished, we could say, by that light. And this worry is the deepest substance of the human being, that is truly tragic. This light, that is so special, characterizes my work, whether it is portraits or "interior portraits", as I would describe the works of this thematic exhibition. It seems to give life to everything through its absence… “.