Sasha Chaitow, PhD, is a British-Greek artist, author, and independent scholar.
ART
She initially trained in art alongside the established Corfu artists Spyros Alamanos, Aggelos Gerakaris, and Nerina Lymperopoulou. She studied in the Fine Arts Department of VAKALO School of Art in Athens. Between 2000-2009 she held 6 solo exhibitions in Corfu and Athens. From 2009 she focused more on her academic work, continuing to paint portraits on commission and taking part in group exhibitions. Having completed her PhD in 2014, she returned to full-time painting and established ICON Gallery in the old town of Corfu, aiming to provide a showcase for local artists. In 2015, at the invitation of Gothenburg University, she travelled to Sweden where she held 2 solo art exhibits in Lund and Gothenburg, accompanied by lectures. In 2016 she exhibited her collection Saving the Lives of Angels in London and Northampton in the context of the Trans-States Conference at the University of Northampton. Her 2017 exhibition, Stained by the Light represents a body of entirely new, original work, exhibited in Corfu in her 10th solo show, and due to be exhibited at Glastonbury Galleries in October 2017. Sasha is currently in discussion with galleries in Madrid, Kiev, and Moscow for 2018-19.
WRITING
In Greek she has published the monograph Searching for Josephin Peladan (Daidaleos Pub., 2013; Alloste Pub., Athens 2016); a layperson’s introduction to his life and work in the context of the Belle Epoque and the French Occult Revival, and book chapters in collective works by Archetypo Publishing. For a number of years she wrote articles for the national and periodic press. Outside Greece, she has published a number of academic papers and chapters in various peer reviewed journals and books (USA, Sweden, Spain, Holland). She is currently working on the revision of her PhD thesis for publication with Brill Academic Press in 2018, and is preparing a series of works on Josephin Peladan with a UK publisher. Her full academic CV is available here.
EDUCATION
Since 2003 Sasha has presented dozens of public talks and academic lectures in Greece and further afield. She is frequently invited as a guest lecturer to universities in the US and Europe. She has 14 years of experience as a teacher of foreign languages at secondary level, and 12 years in higher education and lifelong learning (University of Indianapolis – Athens 2005-2010, P.R. Academy – London 2010-2014, Andrioti School – Corfu 2014-present). She is currently developing lifelong learning courses on culture-related topics and academic skills for Andrioti School, and extracurricular classes for teenagers on art and culture.
RESEARCH
Sasha holds 2 MA degrees in English Literature (University of Indianapolis 2004) and Cultural History (Western Esotericism, University of Exeter 2008). She was awarded her PhD in Cultural History from the University of Essex in 2014. Her work on Josephin Peladan is the result of her PhD research which focuses on Peladan’s life and work. It comprises a full scale review of his work in the context of the history of Western Esotericism, and an attempt to reexamine and where necessary, rehabilitate the man and his work.Her research interests involve the interdisciplinary study of the relationship of philosophy and esoteric thought with art and wider culture.
Websites: www.sashachaitow.co.uk
www.peladan.net
www.iconcraft.gr
