Nike Savvas, winner of the prestigious Australia Council Fellowship Grant for Fine Art in 2010, is an artist of both large-scale installation and small-scale works. Drawing her inspiration from a variety of sources, from Op Art through to kitsch, her work often conflates painstakingly crafted detail and complex mathematical algorithms - drawing attention to both the tangible and the abstract at once. Her objects and installations often invite the viewer to partake in the active experience of her work, by physically shifting, repositioning and refocusing their gaze, in order to unveil ever-changing facets to the works. Her art is never quite stable, rather Savvas creates tantalising, fluctuating objects that captivate and mesmerise the eye and the mind. FULL OF LOVE FULL OF WONDER is the long-overdue first monograph on her work. Born in Sydney, Australia, of Greek-Cypriot parents, and moving to London in the mid-1990s to develop her arts practice, Savvas continues to work between London, Sydney and Nicosia. Her artistic identity is therefore an eclectic reflection of her multiple heritages. This volume showcases her oeuvre to date, exploring her processes as well as the finished works. It offers an unprecedented insight into the artist's both large and small-scale works. Rachel Kent, Patricia Ellis and Stephen Little contextualise Savvas' work within Australian, Greek and British art scenes, as well as drawing links between her practice and the traditional art historical canon and contemporary popular/kitsch/Zen cultures, that Savvas' work curiously balances with harmonious ease. ILLUSTRATION: 189 b/w and colour
