Sun Bleached

Rooted in nostalgia and intuition, Sun Bleached reflects the artist’s experience growing up in South Florida—surrounded by sun, salt, fruit trees, and the quiet collision of joy and grief. Papou’s vibrant, emotive paintings are layered with memory and personal symbolism, offering an immersive look into the dualities of identity, presence, and transformation.

Papou, a queer artist of Greek and Native American heritage, uses painting as a form of storytelling and reclamation. Her work is inspired by everyday pleasures: dolphins, palm shadows, bubble gum, the smell of chlorine after a day at the pool. These seemingly playful motifs hold deeper meaning—each piece a tender exploration of emotional and spiritual resilience.

The exhibition invites viewers into a world where landscapes are painted, erased, and reimagined—like objects faded by the sun. Canvases are intuitively layered, then stripped back, echoing the fluid nature of memory and the softening of what once felt sharp. Papou’s process mirrors how we meet life not through what happens, but through how we respond.

Recurring characters—a seagull for presence, an alligator for madness, a chicken as the inner voice—populate her work, symbolizing the spectrum of the human experience. Her figures often appear entangled with wildlife, acting as portals to the subconscious and invitations to reconnect with the inner child.

At the heart of Papou’s practice is a celebration of her grandfather ("Papou"), whose 1950s immigration from Greece to the U.S. serves as both muse and metaphor. No longer burdened by cultural expectations, she transforms ancestral stories into vibrant, liberated expressions of joy, humor, and self-acceptance.

Sun Bleached is a love letter to intuitive living—a reminder that joy can be a form of resistance, and tenderness doesn't need explanation. The result is a deeply personal manifesto, where madness and beauty coexist, and the artist emerges not lost in a dream, but as the main character of her unfolding story.