Andi Ipaktchi
Andrea Ipaktchi has held a lifelong interest in art and performance. She was born in Reading, Pennsylvania into a large Catholic family of Irish, German and Italian descent. She is the fourth of five siblings and spent most of her childhood in Maryland, Connecticut with strong emotional ties to her Grandparents' homes in Vermont and Philadelphia. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design.
After graduation, she pursued a 20-year career in Paris designing 3-d driving simulator environments and 2D digital drawings for Renault, Giravion, and Sony Playstation while simultaneously pursuing her interest in printmaking and theatre.
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She and her Franco-Iranian husband raised their two sons in Paris in an international-minded community. Her family ties now span across the globe. Her rich heritage and cultural immersions constantly inform her artwork.
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Her works on panels or paper are inspired by Jungian archetypal imagery to evoke memories connected to love, loss, belonging, and transformation..She uses mixed media including ink, encaustic, tempera, digital and printmaking techniques on paper or panels.
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She has exhibited her work in France and the USA. Her printmaking work won first prize at the 2016 Galerie Metanoia competition in Paris. The Tyrone Guthrie Art Center at Annaghmakerrig Ireland hosted her for printmaking in 2018, 2020, and writing in 2022.
She met her co-writing partner at the Irish arts residency. The two created the play "Retreat Comedy" which ranked top of the Irish and French Podcast charts in 2022 and 2023. A live reading was performed in 2020 and 2022 in Galway. Their onstage spin-off was shortlisted for the Hammond House UK Publishing Comedy Prize in 2023.
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Every artist needs a muse; Marcus Aurelius, is mine. He is a wild boy. A Eurasian Jay (Garrulus Glandarius) who comes to visit at snacktime and keeps me on my heels.