ART-PRESENTATION: Panagiotis Rappas-Time_Memory_Location
Despite his position in the international film world, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science voting member, Panagiotis Rappas’ work as a visual artist is much less known. During his studies in painting and engraving in Hanover, Panagiotis Rappas accidentally came into contact with the medium of film, setting him out on his career as Layout Supervisor, Sequence Director, Storyboard Artist, Creative Director, Director, Animator and Producer.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Panagiotis Rappas Archive
Panagiotis Rappas never stopped drawing and painting initially for the needs of his films, since he always painted in the process of animation and then as a break or as short notes. His watercolors are informed by his personal experiences from the places where he lived. Light and shadows play the most important role in both color and black and white watercolors. In his works that are on presentation in his solo exhibition, as the title indicates., Time, Memory and Location are the three key elements that concern him. As the artist says “A human life can be a fraction of a second compared to the universe. But for one human being it can be thousands of experiences, clay that is constantly forming the hands of memory…” Observing carefully his watercolors, sketch books and virtual works that are ready to jump off the screen, the viewer can see that while the places and the landscapes of the artist’s everyday life, are real, at the same time they look like they emerge from fairy but without any external morphological similarities. This is mainly because, while there is a central theme, the details are lost but without disappearing… they simply acquire other dimension, they become like haiku. Having studied and influenced Japanese art, many elements in his work come from it, in Panagiotis Rappas’ work everything starts and unfolds like a haiku. “Sharp observation in a constantly changing world, the haiku technique has led me to try to capture a moment that passes by and its uniqueness. So that, if it succeeds, it will provoke a multiple reading: second thoughts about time, duration, what’s important, what’s not, what’s left of all that we see, and how memory captures and holds them”. Panagiotis Rappas main body of work is about children and especially adapting children’s literature to cartoon films. His work has won numerous international awards in Europe and the USA. He was born in the island of Hydra, Greece. He studied Painting, Engraving and Animation in Germany. In 1989 when Steven Spielberg opened AMBLIN-Universal animation studio in London, he was one of the first-recruited artists. The same time he continues to work as a freelance animation director in various animated projects and television commercials in London’s West End. In 1995 he co-founded Stardust Pictures Ltd and acted as Producer and Creative Director of the projects undertaken by the company such as the acclaimed “1001 Nights” for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Oscar nominated animation short “The Periwig Maker”. Between 1998 and 2000 he moved to the United States to provide Storyboard, Layout Supervision and Sequence Direction on various projects for Paramount/Nickelodeon. In 1999 he co-founded Time Lapse Pictures in Los Angeles and in 2001 Time Lapse Pictures Hellas SA in Athens and he is acting to this day as Director of the company. Since 2009 he has been pursuing a freelance career as a Producer, Director and Screenwriter. Next to his animation work Panagiotis Rappas did Stage Design for many Theatre plays and Illustrations for Children Books.
Info: Curator: Efi Michalarou, Artshot Gallery-Sophia Gaitani, 11 Lempesi street, Akropolis, Athens, Duration: 17/9-5/10/19, Days & Hours: Tue, Thu & Fri 16:00-21:00, Wed & Sat 12:00-16:00, www.sophiagaitani.gr
