Yianni (He/Him) is a passionate advocate for using art as tools for personal healing and self discovery. He believes in the transformative power of art to alleviate boredom, induce flow states and authentically express the inner self.
Based in Melbourne, Yianni discovered collage under the pseudonym of Cosmic Tapestry during the pandemic as a creative outlet amid lockdown. What began as a response to stress soon evolved into a passion for paper, where surreal worlds and infinite stories emerged from vintage books, magazines and ephemera collected and archived over four years. It was during his second group show Queer My Head at the Dax Centre that profoundly shaped Yiannis artistic vision and commitment to exploring identity through art.
Living in a human-made world often evokes a yearning for the natural and more simpler times, which i navigate through my art. Celebrating colour, shape, and the reinterpretation of history, my work merges surrealist elements with prophetic, spiritual with sexual and mystical with the magical. It embraces life in its entirety - the beautiful, bizarre, bad and ugly.
Motivated by the positive impact of collage on his own life, Yianni has extended his passion into community engagement. He conducts workshops across Melbourne, fostering creativity, connection and exploration within diverse and marginalised communities. These workshops serve as platforms for participants to discover their artistic voices and to connect on a deeper level both as individuals and as part of a larger collective.