Lumen | Gold Award, Shades of Blue 2026 | Camelback Gallery | Annita Apostolidou Platis
Awarded Gold at Camelback Gallery’s Shades of Blue 2026, Lumen is a quiet meditation on inner illumination, where blue becomes emotional terrain and light coexists with shadow.
Gold Award — Shades of Blue 2026 Art Awards
The series The Luminous Abyss is a visual journey through the interplay of light and shadow. A meditation on the emotional dualities we carry within us: visibility and secrecy, strength and softness, memory and transformation. Each work in the series invites the viewer to pause before the unseen, to recognize that even in darkness, light is never truly lost.
This body of work does not seek spectacle.
It seeks resonance.
Through layered symbolism, controlled palettes, and intentional stillness, the series unfolds slowly, allowing meaning to surface through texture, atmosphere, and emotional presence rather than overt narration. It is equally a meditation on process, where each image is shaped by intention, study, and the quiet labor of building visual language as a vessel for inner states.
Within this context, Lumen emerges as a quiet meditation on inner illumination.
A frosty female figure stands suspended between shadow and glow, her presence both ethereal and resolute. She inhabits a liminal space — neither fully revealed nor hidden — embodying the delicate balance between vulnerability and strength. Her stillness is not passive; it is attentive, charged with awareness.
Golden lanterns descend like guiding stars, releasing warmth into the cool blue atmosphere. They do not dominate the scene, but gently punctuate it, symbols of guidance, memory, and the fragile persistence of hope. Around her, dark feathers drift through the space, evoking protection, remembrance, and unseen flight, traces of what has passed and what continues quietly beneath the surface.
From the textured darkness emerge magnolia and hydrangea blossoms. These flowers speak of purity, emotional depth, and fragile resilience. Their pale petals echo the figure’s porcelain stillness, forming a silent dialogue between softness and endurance, stillness and becoming. Nature here is not decorative; it is symbolic. A language of emotional states rendered through form.
In Lumen, light is not loud.
It does not conquer the darkness.
It coexists with it.
Illumination is intimate. A presence felt rather than declared, revealing beauty within stillness and hope within the unseen. Blue, as the dominant chromatic field, becomes both emotional terrain and structural force: a color associated with introspection, depth, and quiet endurance.
Lumen was awarded the Gold Award in the Shades of Blue 2026 Art Awards, an international juried virtual exhibition organized by Camelback Gallery. The jurors selected works based on theme, quality of work, composition, value, color, technique, depth, and overall impact. The exhibition brings together 116 award-winning artists from 13 countries, each interpreting blue as both color and concept.
I extend my sincere thanks to the jurors Kathy Paulus, Jan Lowe, and Kassandra Kaye for their thoughtful consideration and for recognizing the quiet strength and symbolic depth of this work. I am also grateful to Camelback Gallery for creating a platform that honors emotional nuance, artistic rigor, and meaningful contemporary dialogue.
View the Shades of Blue 2026 Exhibition
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist · Exhibition Essayist · Curator · Fashion & Jewelry Designer · Interior Designer · Poet & Writer
© 2026 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
Golden Trio Award – FLOWER 2026 | Gallery Ring | Rugs & Reverence series by Annita Apostolidou Platis
Awarded the Golden Trio Award at Gallery Ring’s FLOWER 2026 exhibition, Annita Apostolidou Platis presents Remnant, Veil, and Sanctum from her Rugs & Reverence series — works that explore memory, devotion, and cultural continuity through symbolic objects and floral forms.
What a luminous way to begin the new year,
surrounded by gratitude, recognition, and creative intention.
I am deeply honored to receive the Golden Trio Award from Gallery Ring in the FLOWER International Juried Exhibition 2026 for my artworks Remnant, Veil, and Sanctum, from the ongoing series Rugs & Reverence.
This special and rare award is reserved for artists who demonstrate exemplary skill, creativity, and originality across three artworks within a single submission — a recognition that celebrates both artistic consistency and conceptual depth.
My work invites the viewer to see art objects, vintage accessories, and statement garments not as surface decoration, but as a living archive — where heritage, care, and reverence continue to unfold. Floral forms and handcrafted elements become symbolic vessels, carrying personal memory and cultural continuity across time.
The series Rugs & Reverence is structured around two interconnected realms: Creatures of Memory and Objects of Devotion.
The awarded works belong to the Objects of Devotion section, where heirloom references, botanical symbolism, and historic textile influences converge to create quiet altars of remembrance.
Drawing from ancient rugs, historic fabrics, and ornamental traditions, each piece is composed as a quiet act of preservation. Through digital artistry, these objects are reimagined while honoring their ceremonial presence. They are not simply decorative forms, but reflections on what is carried, tended, and remembered.
I extend my sincere gratitude to Gallery Ring for this meaningful recognition and for their continued support of artists worldwide.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist · Curator · Essayist · Fashion & Jewelry Designer
© 2026 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
All images are protected by copyright.
1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award | Gallery Ring | Holiday Advent Show
A moment of recognition and reflection — The Nutcracker’s Muse receives the 1st Place Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring’s Holiday Advent Show 2025, marking a meaningful milestone in an ongoing artistic journey.
A beautiful closing to the year
I am deeply honored to share that The Nutcracker’s Muse has been awarded 1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring’s Holiday Advent Show 2025, following its selection as the Official Artwork for December 24.
This recognition marks a meaningful moment within my ongoing artistic journey. The Holiday Advent Show celebrates creative expression through a curated, international platform, and I am grateful for the thoughtful way this work was received and presented.
The Nutcracker’s Muse reflects an inner landscape of memory, ritual, and quiet symbolism — a meditation on winter, reflection, and the unseen narratives that shape us. The piece belongs to my ongoing exploration of seasonal mythologies, where emotion and symbolism intertwine to form a visual language of stillness and depth.
I am thankful to Gallery Ring for the opportunity to be part of this inspiring initiative and for their continued support of artists worldwide.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist | Curator | Essayist | Fashion & Jewelry Designer
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award | Gallery Ring | December 2025
The Nutcracker’s Muse, part of The Seasons – Special Edition, receives the 1st Place Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring. A contemplative winter artwork exploring memory, symbolism, and inner reflection.
I am deeply honored to receive the 1st Place – Diamond Snowflake Award at Gallery Ring – The Holiday Advent Show for my artwork “The Nutcracker’s Muse.”
December is especially meaningful to me. A month woven with memories, dreams, hopes, plans, goals, and lived moments. It carries the emotional weight of reflection and renewal—of looking back while quietly envisioning what lies ahead.
The Nutcracker’s Muse is my winter artistic creation from “The Seasons – Special Edition”, a collection that explores each season as a living mythos—a space where personal memory and cultural ritual converge. In this work, winter is not presented merely as a time of cold and stillness, but as an interior landscape, where imagination, nostalgia, and symbolism quietly commune.
Here, I reinterpret the iconic Nutcracker figure not as the central hero of the familiar play, but as a guardian spirit. An emblem of vigilance, tradition, and childhood wonder, poised above the mind of his muse. The central figure, serene yet intensely present, embodies the contemplative nature of the season. Her face becomes a vessel of quiet storytelling: ornamental glasses shaped as porcelain and an owl invite the viewer to look beyond surface beauty into layered inner worlds. The porcelain speaks to the past and inherited memory, while the owl symbolizes wisdom, inner strength, protection, and guidance.
Surrounding her is a constellation of winter’s symbolic language: framed ornaments, golden bells, mistletoe, and heirloom-like decorations that hover between memory and dream. These elements echo the cherished objects that resurface during winter rituals—tokens revisited year after year, each holding fragments of emotional history.
For me, winter is a season of introspection. Its stillness allows intuition to rise, offering space for the stories we carry from childhood to resurface and gently reshape themselves. The Nutcracker’s Muse reflects this inward journey—honoring the delicate interplay between remembrance and reinvention, and the quiet magic that lives in the spaces between light and shadow.
Grateful.
With this artwork, I wish you Happy Holidays filled with health and light.
With Gratitude
My heartfelt thanks to the Gallery Ring team for their vision, professionalism, and continued dedication to supporting artists worldwide. Being recognized within such an inspiring international artistic community is truly meaningful, and I am grateful for the care and intention behind The Holiday Advent Show.
This award marks a moment of reflection and affirmation—one that I carry forward with deep appreciation.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist | Curator | Essayist | Fashion & Jewelry Designer
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
Crystal Award | Gallery Ring COLOUR Exhibition | December 2025
Proud to receive the Crystal Award for The Sweetness of Control in Gallery Ring’s COLOUR Exhibition 2025, with two more works honored as Finalists.
I am honored to share that my artwork The Sweetness of Control has been awarded the CRYSTAL AWARD in the COLOUR International Juried Exhibition by Gallery Ring (December 2025).
This distinction celebrates artworks that demonstrate clarity of vision, strong aesthetic cohesion, and compelling use of color. I am deeply grateful for this recognition among so many remarkable international submissions.
About the Awarded Artwork — The Sweetness of Control
The Sweetness of Control is a meditation on elegance as architecture and nostalgia as a quietly commanding force.
Balancing a richly embroidered umbrella adorned with vintage teacups, teapots, and golden spoons, the central figure becomes the embodiment of restraint veiled in ritual. Porcelain and gold hover around her like delicate weapons of etiquette—chosen, placed, and never accidental. Each object functions as both ornament and intention, transforming a familiar moment of tea into a stage of subtle dominance. The refined palette of vintage reds, warm golds, and porcelain blues evokes the ceremonial grace of tradition—where gentleness disguises precision, and tenderness masks control. In this surreal domestic theatre, there is no sugar—only the suggestion of sweetness. Tea time becomes less an indulgence and more a choreography of gesture, grace, and hidden power.
To serve is not to surrender—it is to orchestrate.
Additional Recognitions — COLOUR 2025
Two additional artworks from When Color Knows the Script were honored as Finalists in the same exhibition:
What Falls in Velvet Silence
Whispers and Voices
These distinctions further affirm the narrative, symbolic depth, and evolving international presence of the series.
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist · Curator · Essayist · Fashion & Jewelry Designer · Poet
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
Crystal Artist of December 2025| Gallery Ring International Recognition
Honored to be named Crystal Artist of December 2025 by Gallery Ring for my artwork Between Yes and No, a piece exploring the quiet tension between choice, identity, and emotion.
In December 2025, I was honored with the title Crystal Artist of the Month by Gallery Ring for my artwork Between Yes and No, part of my series When Color Knows the Script. This distinction highlights artworks that demonstrate clarity of vision, strong conceptual presence, and refined artistic execution.
Between Yes and No explores the suspended moment before choice — where thought transforms into emotion and silence becomes decision. The work reflects the subtle tension between certainty and hesitation, revealing how identity takes shape in the quiet spaces between contrasting states.
This recognition includes a showcase in the official 3D Rotation Gallery on Gallery Ring’s homepage, as well as a dedicated Winners Video on their YouTube channel.
I am deeply grateful to Gallery Ring for this honor and for their continuous commitment to supporting the international artistic community with professionalism, integrity, and exceptional curation.
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Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist · Curator · Essayist · Fashion & Jewelry Designer · Poet
All images are protected by copyright.
© 2025 Annita Apostolidou Platis. All rights reserved.
"Clarity in Disguise" Wins 1st Place at Best in Medium 2025 Art Awards
Honored to receive 1st Place at the Best in Medium 2025 Art Awards for my work Clarity in Disguise — a poetic visual journey of light, illusion, and symbolism.
I am honored and deeply grateful to announce that my artwork Clarity in Disguise has been awarded 1st Place in the Digital Paintings / Digital Art category at the Best in Medium 2025 Art Awards, presented by Camelback Gallery.
This prestigious virtual exhibition featured 170 artworks from 17 countries across multiple categories. To see Clarity in Disguise recognized at the top of its category is a humbling and deeply meaningful moment in my journey as a visual artist.
About the Artwork
Clarity in Disguise unfolds in a realm where every glow seduces and misleads in equal measure. Inspired by the paradoxes of Alice in Wonderland, the scene is a surreal parlour of riddles and reflections:
Teacups radiate borrowed warmth, soothing unspoken doubts.
Layered hats brim with half-truths, casting comforting yet deceptive shadows.
Books glow mysteriously, solving riddles only to give rise to deeper enigmas.
The central figure—poised between observer and illusionist—meets our gaze not with answers, but with silent questions. In this theatre of suspended bulbs and shifting symbols, clarity does not reveal—it performs. And in its performance, it disguises.
This piece is part of my broader collection "The Luminous Abyss", a visual journey through the emotional dualities we carry—visibility and secrecy, strength and softness, memory and transformation.
A Word of Thanks
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the jurors and especially to Mrs. Kassandra Kaye, Founder and Managing Editor of Camelback Gallery, for this recognition and for offering a platform where digital and mixed media artists from around the world can be seen and celebrated.
I also extend heartfelt thanks to those who support my artistic path—from collectors and curators to fellow creatives and friends. Your belief in my work is the light that carries me forward.
Explore the Exhibition
Annita Apostolidou Platis
Visual Artist
Painter | Exhibition Essayist | Curator | Fashion & Jewelry Designer | Interior Designer | Poet and Writer
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