Danai Gkoni is an architect and digital artist who uses collage illustrations to create images that narrate surreal and sometimes dystopian urban stories. The ‘Urban Crisis’ collage series draws inspiration from Athens’ socio-spatial situation, employing humor and a brightly-colored irony. The city reveals its bipolar character as a place of pleasure and despair. These collages are dystopian and fun at the same time, intending to depict reality in a pop-surrealistic way. ‘Collage as a medium is able to express through is hybrid nature of juxtaposition and reconfiguration, qualities such as surrealism, humor, sociopolitical critique. I am interested in the dynamics of space and the built environment, the urban lifestyle and its aesthetics, the pleasure of urbanity as a space of togetherness and isolation at the same time-those are the concepts I try to explore as a digital artist.’

Danai Gkoni