Sophia Bakos is a Vancouver based multidisciplinary artist who completed her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Studio Arts at Concordia University in 2022. For the past several years, Bakos has worked solely in contribution to her textile/photographic series entitled AMATEUR. The series speaks to Bakos’ experiences with sexual harm through combination of analog portraiture and various textile mediums such as needle felting and hand-sewing. Bakos’ textile work is extension of herself, in that she incorporates her likeness or an element of her person in each piece. Feminine colours and textures are utilized to represent the sweetness of girlhood, though this sweetness is steeped in sullied memories of late adolescence.
Bakos’ AMATEUR saw its first public debut in 2021 at Gallery George in Vancouver, B.C for the annual Parker Art Salon, and has since been displayed at the East Side Culture Crawl for three consecutive years. Individual pieces from the series have also been exhibited across Canada and United States — the most recent exhibition being a multi-city erotic art show entitled A Hot Minute, which takes place in three Galleries across Canada: Gallery Merrick in Victoria B.C, Ashdale Gallery in North Vancouver, B.C, and Christine Klassen Gallery in Calgary, Alberta. In early March of 2024, Bakos participated in a group exhibition titled Transforming Visions at Lipont Gallery In Richmond, BC. Bakos currently resides in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY as she participates in an artist residency with Residency Unlimited.