“The material knows something long before I do.”

Where Materials Begin to Think

Avraam Hirodontis, a Cypriot artist based in Limassol, works with materials that shift subtly the moment you encounter them.

He studied Fine Art in the United Kingdom and later researched Bauhaus pedagogy at Cyprus University of Technology.

Textural canvas-on-canvas artwork by Avraam Hirodontis, showing raised woven ridges and subtle vertical interruptions across a pale surface.
Avraam Hirodontis: Untitled #16, canvas on canvas. A restrained surface structured through repeated thread-built relief and controlled variation. Image courtesy of the artist.
Detail of Avraam Hirodontis’ canvas-on-canvas work, revealing dense thread accumulation, tactile ridges, and fine material irregularities.
Avraam Hirodontis: Untitled #16 (detail), canvas on canvas. Close view highlighting material density, rhythm, and the physical buildup of thread within the surface. Image courtesy of the artist.

Recent presentations at Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery, Limassol Municipal Arts Centre and the artist-run space dzamaria frame his material-focused practice, while his inclusion in Weave Wave: Material Agencies in Motion at Central Slovak Gallery in Slovakia (2025) positions the work within broader conversations on textile-based agency, alongside his current participation in the 10th International Beijing Biennale at the Beijing Exhibition Center.

These exhibitions anchor his work in a context where material sensitivity carries weight without relying on story.

The materials remain the primary agents, not symbols of a geographic or biographical narrative.

Avraam Hirodontis in his studio handling raw canvas fabric, the motion slightly blurred as material is lifted and folded during the making process.
Avraam Hirodontis: Studio view showing the artist working with canvas fabric, exploring movement, weight, and material resistance. Image courtesy of the artist.
Avraam Hirodontis: Studio process image capturing bodily movement and material handling during the construction of textile works. Image courtesy of the artist.
Avraam Hirodontis: Studio process image capturing bodily movement and material handling during the construction of textile works. Image courtesy of the artist.

Counterpoint and the Quiet Logic of Construction

In Counterpoint, wood and straw rise into a vertical structure that holds tension without tightening it.

The woven sections shift between open and closed, letting air move through them in uneven intervals. The structure appears both held and holding itself, as if testing its own balance.

A freestanding woven structure made of wood, straw and canvas fabric with layered weaving shifting between tight and open areas.
Avraam Hirodontis: Counterpoint, wood, straw, canvas fabric and thread, image courtesy of the artist.

Avraam Hirodontis: Detail of Counterpoint, wood, straw, canvas fabric and thread, image courtesy of the artist.

A tall wooden frame holding woven straw and canvas strips with varied density that creates soft changes in light and texture.
Avraam Hirodontis: Close-up Counterpoint, wood, straw, canvas fabric and thread, image courtesy of the artist.

There is no imposed meaning here, only the invitation to consider how materials negotiate pressure and release.

A slight irregularity in the weave, a small shift in how the light catches the straw, becomes part of the thinking process. Hirodontis does not correct these tendencies. He follows them.

Landscape Without Depiction

Landscape I uses soil dyes that settle slowly into the canvas, forming muted ochres, browns and quiet pinks. The work does not depict land. It behaves like something shaped by land.

Vertical strips of canvas fabric dyed with natural pigments in muted yellow, beige and soft pink tones, stitched together to form a hanging textile surface.
Avraam Hirodontis: Landscape I, canvas fabric, natural fabric dye and thread, image courtesy of the artist.
Detail of Landscape I, work composed of stitched canvas strips dyed with natural fabric pigments, creating a rhythmic surface of earthy, uneven color blocks.
Avraam Hirodontis: Detail of Landscape I, canvas fabric treated with natural fabric dye and stitched with thread, image courtesy of the artist.

Vertical strips absorb pigment at different speeds, producing soft breaks where seams meet. Cyprus may come to mind, but only as an afterthought. The soil is not a symbol, it is a collaborator.

Hirodontis allows it to stain, drift and settle in ways that are not controlled by image-making. The result is a surface that feels like time accumulating, not a landscape attempting to speak.

Transparency, Light and the Fragile Surface

In Vestiges, sheer fabrics, cheesecloth and satin overlap in layers that respond to light with unpredictable clarity.

Some edges appear to float. Others fold slightly inward, catching highlights where the thread pulls. A seam sits a little off center, not intentionally disruptive but naturally imperfect.

A suspended textile work made of translucent cheesecloth layered with stitched canvas, polyester and linen elements that respond softly to light.
Avraam Hirodontis: Vestiges I, cheesecloth, canvas fabric, polyester, linen and fusible fleece, image courtesy of the artist.

Avraam Hirodontis: Vestiges I (detail views), cheesecloth, canvas fabric, polyester, linen and fusible fleece, image courtesy of the artist.

detail view of a translucent textile surface showing stitched paths of cheesecloth, polyester and linen, highlighting texture, seams and light variation.
Avraam Hirodontis: Vestiges I (detail view), cheesecloth, canvas fabric, polyester, linen and fusible fleece, image courtesy of the artist.

These deviations are not mistakes. They mark the work’s own internal logic. Light does not decorate these surfaces. It moves through them, becoming part of their structure. Viewers often find themselves shifting position, as if the work were adjusting itself in return.

Theoretical Undercurrents That Matter

The theoretical dimension of Hirodontis’ practice is subtle but present. His research into Bauhaus methods appears in the disciplined use of repetition and deviation. A pattern holds until it doesn’t. A rule persists until the material tests it.

A framed textile work made of canvas with subtle stitched text across a pale surface, emphasizing quiet texture and restrained material presence.
Avraam Hirodontis: In Her Own Words, canvas and thread, image courtesy of the artist.
Detail of a canvas surface showing fine stitched lines of thread forming faint text embedded into the fabric texture.
Avraam Hirodontis: Detail of In Her Own Words (detail), canvas and thread, image courtesy of the artist.

Theory operates implicitly within his practice: ideas of material agency emerge through the behaviour of the materials themselves, which are allowed to act, resist, and transform.

A dye insists on settling where it finds weight. A canvas strip twists slightly toward light. Hirodontis listens to these movements without translating them into metaphors or narratives. This restraint becomes part of the intellectual clarity of the work.

A square textile work composed of woven canvas and found materials, featuring a central stitched panel with text integrated into a grid-like fabric structure.
Avraam Hirodontis: We Became Refugees: A Visual Chronicle of Displacement, found object and canvas fabric, image courtesy of the artist.

Why This Work Matters

Hirodontis contributes to a larger conversation in contemporary textile and material-based practices that shift attention away from representation and toward material behaviour itself.

In a moment when art is often asked to explain or resolve, his work insists on patient observation, slow processes and the intelligence of matter.

This positions his practice not as commentary but as a form of attunement, offering viewers a way of thinking through materials rather than through imposed meaning.

A square textile work composed of tightly layered horizontal canvas lines, creating a dense, rhythmic surface with subtle tonal variation across the field.
Avraam Hirodontis: Untitled #11, canvas on canvas, image courtesy of the artist.
Detail of a square textile work composed of tightly layered horizontal canvas lines, creating a dense, rhythmic surface with subtle tonal variation across the field.
Avraam Hirodontis: Detail of Untitled #11, canvas on canvas, image courtesy of the artist.

A Practice Shaped by Attention, Not Assertion

Across these works, Hirodontis returns to a simple but demanding question: what can materials hold without becoming narrative.

He allows soil to settle, allows thread to drift, allows structure to remain slightly unstable.

A vertically oriented framed textile work composed of hand woven thread on canvas, arranged in horizontal bands with subtle variations in weave density and tone.
Avraam Hirodontis: Spatial Study #1, hand woven thread on canvas frame, image courtesy of the artist.
Detail of a hand woven textile surface showing layered threads and shifts in texture within a wooden frame, emphasizing material structure and weave pattern.
Avraam Hirodontis: Spatial Study #1 (detail), hand woven thread on canvas frame, image courtesy of the artist.

These gestures accumulate into a form of memory that is neither symbolic nor autobiographical. It is closer to the persistence of touch, or the return of light to a familiar surface.

Can threads hold history without becoming narrative. The works suggest the question remains open, but they carry their own quiet answer.

A square framed textile work composed of vertical bands of canvas fabric and polyester, alternating between sheer and dense textures that create a rhythmic, softly striated surface.
Avraam Hirodontis: Recurrent Matters, canvas fabric and polyester, image courtesy of the artist.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Avraam Hirodontis is a Cypriot artist based in Limassol. His textile-based practice explores memory, material intelligence, and contested landscapes through layering, weaving, and natural dyeing with Cypriot soil.

Avraam Hirodontis’ studio workspace with sewing machine, folded canvas, tools, and a finished textile work resting against the wall.
Avraam Hirodontis: Studio workspace with sewing machine and textile materials, where hand processes and mechanical stitching intersect. Image courtesy of the artist.
Avraam Hirodontis sewing layered fabric on a domestic sewing machine, focusing on precision, rhythm, and material tension.
Avraam Hirodontis: The artist sewing layered textile elements, emphasizing repetition, tactility, and controlled intervention. Image courtesy of the artist.

He researched Bauhaus pedagogy at Cyprus University of Technology. Currently showing in "Weave Wave: Material Agencies in Motion" at Central Slovak Gallery, Slovakia (through December 2025).

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Weave Wave: Material Agencies in Motion
Central Slovak Gallery
Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

Upcoming:
Residency at The Art Foundation, Athens, Greece (2026)

VISIT / ENGAGE

Follow Avraam Hirodontis on Instagram under @avraam.alkimos for studio process and new work.

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