George Sfougaras
Greece-UK
George Sfougaras was born in Greece of parents who were part of the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1922. The family came to the UK during the years of the Greek Military Junta, in the early 70s.
He has taught art, developed curriculum materials and was most recently Headteacher of a school for young people facing physical, emotional and psychiatric challenges. He has used art as a tool for positive change within educational institutions, from empowering individual pupils to engaging staff and communities.
Since leaving teaching he has been able to focus exclusively on making art, exploring issues of human migration, change and cultural inheritance through representational art which draws heavily on cultural symbols and historical sources. He is a studio holder at the Leicester Print Workshop and winner of ‘Small Print International’ and ‘Ideas on Paper’ prize for Midlands Printers Open in 2016.
George is the instigator of the Focus on Identity International Group in 2017, originally comprising 20 artists from 14 countries. The project is outlined here: http://www.blurb.co.uk/books/8029086-identity-magazine He was invited to speak on issues of identity and sense of place in his work at 2017 Asia Triennial in Manchester.
His current projects ‘Personal Maps’ and the ‘Lazarus Project’ explore family history, migration and culture through ‘narrative mapping’ of places, memories, archival research and animation.
On the left, you see recent works.
WEBSITE www.georgesfougaras.com
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/sfougaras/
BLOG https://georgesfougaras.blogspot.co.uk/