ART – Maite Leon

METAMORPHOSIS OF EVERYDAY LIFE

I am drawn to states of transition: between reality and dreams, between the material and the immaterial, between the ordinary object and the symbol it conceals. My work begins with an obsessive attention to the everyday — an object on a table, a fold in fabric, a form surfacing in a landscape. I wait for the moment when the familiar shifts: when matter becomes meaning, when the known world turns strange and reveals something universal. This tension between the visible and the invisible, between accumulation and the void it seeks to fill, runs through everything I make. My series move through multitudes and variations, through detail magnified and meaning recast, until something new emerges in place of the original.

PHASE I: UNFOLDING REALITY

Capturing variations of form and shape is a personal story: one of becoming. Folds are intimate spaces flirting with light and shadow. Sometimes reflective, sometimes muted, they always stand between movement and stillness.

The Veil I, II, III Digital paintings · 2025

Anatomy of Grey I, II, III Digital paintings · 2025

Under the Skin Digital painting · 2025

Before Dawn Digital painting · 2025

PHASE II: LIMINAL SPACES

I always carry with me my two cultures, Greek and French. I always felt that I belonged to both and yet defined by none. Always out of place in Athens or in Paris. The place where I truely belong is one of my own creation. A liminal space. A state or place of transition that defies perception. There, imagination can roam freely, and my reality expands.

La Chambre | The Invitation Digital paintings · 2025

After Noon | Liminal Space | A fleeting Moment Digital paintings · 2025

PHASE III: OIKODOMES

Growing up in Greece, I always noticed the landscape filled with unfinished concrete structures, remnants of buildings that were never built for various reasons. These abandoned ‘oikodomes’ are a common sight across the country. This piece is about how we invade nature and the indelible mark we leave on it.

Dream House Digital painting · 2025

PHASE IV: SECONDARY EFFECTS

I have always been drawn to detail. Secondary Effects is a series of drawings started in 2025, exploring altered states of matter, and some of its effects. A study of its various states: vaporous, aqueous, solid. The geometric form of the cube acts simultaneously as a rational container, a spatial cross-section, and a mysterious box. Mixed and digital media.

Secondary Effects I–VIII · Watercolour, graphite, oil 50×70 cm on Fabriano paper and digital · 2024-2025

PHASE V: ARCHETYPES

What connects us runs deeper than culture or language. I am drawn to Jungian archetypes as universal figures, the roots of being human and part of this world. These symbolic pieces represent a combination of natural elements and active processes of transformation.