Chrys Roboras

The striking and poignant paintings of Chrys Roboras relate directly to her upbringing. The daughter of Greek immigrants, Roboras—born and raised in Sydney, Australia—now resides in Athens. Torn between her family heritage and her native birthplace, viewed as a Greek in Australia and an Australian in Greece, Roboras has perpetually carried with her a deep sense of displacement, a feeling of not belonging. This powerful idea pervades her art, which projects a profound notion of solitude. Roboras’s paintings, most often acrylic on canvas, generally consist of a lone figure amidst a vast, nondescript landscape. These backgrounds are intentionally imprecise, a blend of feathered tones that convey an atmosphere, typically reflected in the work’s title, specific to each composition. The hazily intermingling colors communicate a state of mind, that of the individual who inhabits the painting. Yet while isolated, the person who casts his shadow across this “No Man’s Land,” as the artist calls it, conveys an attitude of strength.

Indeed, while Roboras’s works speak of displacement, they also hint of determination, of perseverance, of “finding a place, a landscape that [one] can fit into without hesitation, a place where [one is] accepted without questions.”