Ariana Papademetropoulos: A nightmare or relief

Ariana Papademetropoulos is a Los Angeles-based painter who describes the city as “one of the only places that allows you to dream.” This sentiment is central to her work, which draws from the surrealist tradition—particularly the contributions of Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varo—to explore the possibilities of the imagination on canvas.

Her paintings, rich in symbolism, merge nature and fantasy. Recurring motifs—mirrors, water, snails, and ruins—act as portals to other realms. Unicorns, her alter-egos, embody contradiction: real yet imagined, innocent yet escapist.

Step into the surreal world of Ariana Papademetropoulos in our interview, where she discusses the universality of symbols, the intersection of art and science, and the limits of AI in creative expression.

h: The paradoxes of the quantum world are objective, but difficult to reconcile with our perception of reality. Does art always know or feel more than science?

Ariana Papademetropoulos: I once named a show Unweave a Rainbow after a line from “Lamia,” a poem by John Keats. The poem is about how scientific approaches reduce the beauty of nature to mechanical explanations; Keats writes about how Isaac Newton destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by analysing it.

Although I’m interested in that notion, I believe the more science uncovers, the more the planet seems like a mysterious place of wonder. In the New Age world, psychics often refer to the quantum field—a concept from quantum physics—as a timeless realm that we all connect to. I am interested in where science and spirituality meet, where art and science converge. Both reveal a world our eyes can’t perceive.

h: The paradoxes of the quantum world are objective, but difficult to reconcile with our perception of reality. Does art always know or feel more than science?

AP: I once named a show Unweave a Rainbow after a line from “Lamia,” a poem by John Keats. The poem is about how scientific approaches reduce the beauty of nature to mechanical explanations; Keats writes about how Isaac Newton destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by analysing it. Although I’m interested in that notion, I believe the more science uncovers, the more the planet seems like a mysterious place of wonder. In the New Age world, psychics often refer to the quantum field—a concept from quantum physics—as a timeless realm that we all connect to. I am interested in where science and spirituality meet, where art and science converge. Both reveal a world our eyes can’t perceive. 

h: The authenticity of a work connects the viewer to the artist across space and time. Do digital technologies, such as AI, deprive us of such connection?

AP: I think we need pure human creativity and innovation, not a rehash of past ideas disguised as something new. AI is a helpful tool, but I don’t think it’s a real threat, as it could never do what a human can. It lacks the nuances of beauty, humour, and human touch. I created mockups for paintings using AI, and although the images looked similar to my works, they didn’t come close to being something I would create on my own or something that I liked. I found great comfort in that.

h: Our vision of the future is formed by hopes, fears, illusions, utopias, and ideals. How do you envision it? 

AP: I have conflicting nightmares. There’s a particular recurring dream where aliens come down and run out of their ship, each holding a pen. When they point the pen at an individual, the pen reveals what percentage of this human is “good” and if they have any purpose on the planet for the greater good. If they are under 70%, they simply turn off, and vanish. I then wake up and wonder if it’s a nightmare or a relief. 

h: How do you see the pursuit of harmony, beauty, and balance in the physical world reflecting or connecting to these same qualities in the metaphysical world?

AP: The metaphysical world is as real as the visual world; one is felt and the other is seen. We rely on the visual world to show us truth, but in an age of manipulated images, I think it’s important to reconnect with the language of our instincts and to trust them. Beauty is the bridge that connects the metaphysical and the physical. Yet beauty—like intuition—is undervalued and even dismissed in contemporary art.