Upcoming:
Nicholas Stathopoulos at Elsewhere
June 3—6, 2026
5U Space is pleased to present the work of Nicholas Stathopoulos at the first edition of Elsewhere. Muslin-veiled paintings and paper-mache sculptures add new dimension to the Philadelphia-based artist’s delightful exploration of inner turmoil and violent visions.
Nicholas Stathopoulos (b. 1987) is a painter from Valley Forge, PA. He graduated from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2009. Stathopoulos’s work has been shown in Philadelphia at The Store, Petrodactyl, and Trust Gallery. This summer he will participate in “here where the body knows it can hurt,” a group exhibition at Vox Populi (Philadelphia, PA).
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Artist statement:
In these works, a veil of decency is cast aside to reveal a dark, fantastical realm inhabited by androgynous/feminine subjects and insecure, self-serving men. I channel an unrelenting feed of violence, performative masculinity, and cataclysm into paintings of soft focus, aesthetically affecting an early 19th-century / pre-war style to give the images a dream-like quality. Recent works are rendered by placing muslin over underpaintings to obscure the image, then painting and scraping back the fabric until a new image emerges. I make these works with outward joy and inward terror; they are cathartic in practice.