Sofia Mitsola was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1992. After moving to London she began to grow to value the unique interaction of historical monuments and everyday life in her homeland, which provoked in her a new curiosity for the rediscovery of historical myths and heritage.
The female body is the primary focus of Mitsola’s art. Her depiction of women is influenced by goddesses from ancient civilizations in Greece and Egypt. She also references the erotic expressions found in 19th century Japanese ukiyo-e art, particularly the use of voyeuristic perspective. Additionally, Mitsola draws inspiration from contemporary animation and cartoons, with Disney being a key influence.
In Mitsola’s works, women often gaze directly at the viewer, exuding a delicate blend of sweetness, wild sensuality and an enigmatic matriarchal temperament. Against a backdrop of geometrically divided, vibrant parts, Mitsola portrays the fullness and strength of the female body using bold brushstrokes and diverse textures.
Following the patriarchal logic, procreation and sexuality are always separated. Women are either deified as “holy mothers” that bring life or degraded as “sluts” that merely fulfill male desires. Established across thousands of years of patriarchal rulings, procreation has been deemed sacred while sexuality is impure, with the Christian biblical story of the Virgin Mary’s virginal conception being the strongest projection of this ideology.
By studying and extracting the “pagan” cultures of ancient Greek and Egyptian cultures, Mitsola recognizes procreation and sexuality as equal integral phases of female life experience. By reviving the archaic duality of procreation and sexuality, Mitsola pushes to dissolve the patriarchal morality that restricts and denies the experiences of women.