Past Exhibitions
Scars and Seeds: Tracing the Memory of Nature
Mill Pond Gallery
Richmond Hill, ON | July 15–20, 2025
In their collaborative residency and exhibition Scars and Seeds: Tracing the Memory of Nature, artists Christos Damianos and Greg Chiykowski explored the lasting imprints of human activity on the environment—traces of harm and resilience embedded in the land.
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Rooted in ecological reflection and material experimentation, the project unfolded as a tactile dialogue between destruction and renewal. Inspired by the poetic notion that “paper is ink’s sister” (Jason Logan), the artists experimented with making inks, pigments and handmade papers from foraged natural materials such as earth pigments, lichens, bark, and plant matter. These materials became both medium and message, representing a cyclical relationship between nature and artistic process.
Working in and around the Mill Pond studio and nearby reserve, they transformed the space into a site of alchemical practice—boiling, fermenting, and grinding their gathered elements into expressive mark-making tools. The resulting works—drawings, paintings, and handmade papers—traced ecological memory and marked sites of trauma and renewal, offering viewers an invitation to witness nature’s endurance and transformation.
Northern Lights, ink on paper, 23x30 cm
CHRISTOS DAMIANOS Works on Paper April 26-27, 2025
The Mill Pond Gallery, 314 Mill street Richmond Hill ON
Christos Damianos Solo Exhibition: Exploring Nature, Identity, and Human PresenceDamianos is proud to present a new solo exhibition that delves into the complex themes of nature, perception, identity, and communication. This exhibition brings together artwork created over the past five years, connecting the artist’s evolving studio practice with significant events and personal experiences that have shaped their artistic journey. The artist invites audiences to explore this intimate body of work, which highlights the intersection of memory, nature, and human interaction in contemporary society.
Art Exhibition January 13 – January 19, 2025
At Risk – Salamander is an art exhibition dedicated to raising awareness about endangered species. The salamander, both a remarkable and vulnerable creature, serves as a poignant symbol of the urgent need for nature conservation. This exhibition marks the culmination of a project that began as an art residency, bringing together creativity and environmental advocacy in a compelling exploration of the fragility of our natural world. This project invited artists to explore the themes of environmental preservation and species conservation, with a particular focus on the Jefferson Salamander and Unisexual Ambystoma in York Region. Central to the exhibition is the Oak Ridges Corridor Reserve, a vital part of the Greenbelt. The residency for this project took place at Phyllis Rawlinson Park and the George Foster House in Richmond Hill in September 2024Exhibition Venue: Boynton House Art Space, Richmond Green Sports Centre and Park, Richmond Hill, ONJefferson Salamander Information Unisexual Ambystoma Information At Richmond Hill
TIME WELL SPENT, 2024
NIGHT VISION, 2023, Acrylic, hand made paper, fibre, on canvas, 91x107cm (work above
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August 28 - September 8, 2024
GALLERY 1313, TORONTO
Time Well Spent, an ongoing series which began in 2023, delves into Damianos' exploration of the passage of time, engaging with fiber-based processes not just as a way to pass the time, but as a means to actively mark and reflect on its fleeting nature. This body of work represents ongoing experimentation with fiber cellulose and handmade processes, where each piece serves as a testament to the ephemeral and transformative nature of time. The exhibition touches on themes of impermanence and the fragility of life, capturing and recording key moments as they slip away. The materiality of the medium is central to each work, mirroring how memories warp over time, eventually fading into obscurity—much like cellulose fibers, which, though seemingly insignificant on their own, are essential to the final composition.The works in Time Well Spent are composed of elements such as size, form, mark-making, and visible layers, with each piece negotiating its own edges and boundaries. While rooted in modernist constructs, Damianos subverts these traditions by reconsidering the role of fiber and form. The pieces, though not directly painted, reveal color as layers are meticulously built up through a labor-intensive process. Rather than focusing on time wasted, this exhibition celebrates Time Well Spent, with each piece referencing life cycles and processes that extend beyond it.​
ENVIRONMENTS, 2024
ENVIRONMENTS consisted of two parts starting with a site-specific art event, and an Artist Circle and culminating in an art exhibition and limited-edition publication.
Richmond Hill is one of the most diverse cities in Canada, with a long history of migration and settlement by both Indigenous and settler populations. Twelve participating York Region artists took part in a walk along the Dave Barrow Trail in the Oak Ridges Corridor Reserve which is part of the Greenbelt. As such, participants were inspired to dig alternative paths into the concepts of nature, conservation, change diversity, and suburban life. The curator shared his interests in this topic and aspects of his artistic practice with regards to his current series Scar. The Boynton House Gallery, the location of the exhibition, and its historical designation add realism and context and acknowledge the space of the architecture it occupies forming a material connection to the wooden structure itself. It also makes references to its place within the context of settlement, displacement, colonialism, and sprawl
curated by Christos Damianos Environments Akimbo
The project was supported by the City of Richmond Hill Community and Cultural Grant
HOSEHOLD SEED, 2023
Hoselhold Seed AI Group Exhibition
Tripoli Arcadian Greece
Curated by Eleni Glinos
AMORGO, 2020
Nikos Gatsos Amorgos: An Exploration in Translation and Painting
Text by Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos, Images by Christos Damianos, 2020
The focus of this Publication is a new translation of Nikos Gatsos’ ΑμοργÏŒς (1943), which makes available in English one of the most remarkable modernist Greek poets. Gatsos (1911-1992) Arcadia, attended the University of Athens in the early 1930s. In 1943, during one of the darkest periods of Greece’s occupation by the Germans and their allies, he published Amorgos, a long poem written in a single night, Amorgos offers a re-imagining of the Greek poetic tradition that mixes Avant-guard movements such as surrealism, symbolism and modernism with the tradition of folk songs so popular in the Arcadia of his youth. Addressing the themes of loss and hope, of the lyrical and the erotic, of a deep passion for Greek landscapes, philosophy, history and culture.
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THIN SKINNED, 2022
Thin-skinned (2022) is an ongoing series consisting of 20 mostly wall mounted and hanging fiber sculptures. Working with one of the most everyday of materials, paper, the artist constructs using a range of techniques with versatility. Paper when wet is heavy and fragile but when dry is Thin-skinned, light, strong and somewhat seductive. The title is derived from a term describing individuals that are “snappish, ornery, impatient, narky, ill-humored, volatile and uptight”. Aside from the title which may reference the state of mental health faced by society as we come out of the Covid Pandemic it also comments on the physicality and fragility of hand made paper and pulp objects. The complexity and rigorous practice of working with fiber and cellulose connects to the artist’s background in art and paper conservation, his childhood experiences of drawing, collaging and making paper objects as well as time spent watching his father at work in his shoe making business.
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