Sofia Stevi is Greek and lives and works in Athens although her Greek heritage is only subtly apparent. There is a breeziness about her work, which is immediately engaging. Painted swiftly onto raw cotton, it has terrific freshness. Both the style of drawing and the colour palette is reminiscent of the 1950s, for example the pastel hues of kitchen china at that time.
There is a mythic quality. But the stories their super sketchy manner refers to can be disturbing. In the shower of the whore-goddess a limb morphs into a coiling shower hose, which emits an ectoplasmic billow..
The shapes she invents are memorable. The double kink of a pointing finger in Invitation is anatomically crazy but visually effective. Pink female limbs touch toes rather charmingly in Beach Bodies but they are resting on dark stones, beneath which lies a bed of incipient movement.
Not all the work is so directly about the body. Three stacked shapes in Primal are only vaguely reminiscent of torsos, the painting functions equally on an abstract level.
The cocktail party mood of much of this work may perhaps soften the impact of its inventiveness. This is an unusual and enjoyable show.
Sofia Stevi ‘we don’t have to learn something new’ at Pippi Houldsworth, 6 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BT until 23 February
