ART CITIES:Athens-Nikos Kryonidis

Since the early 1990’s, when I met him for first time, Nikos Kryonidis has moved a long path in art, experimenting not only with media, but also with his methods, materials and art tools. However, there are two elements to his work that are consistent and characteristic of him. Painting always with references and elements on Abstract Expressionism and poetry.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Astrolavos Gallery Archive

Nikos Kryonidis is a talented and very unique visual artist with consistency in everything he creates, he is painting with his fingers and depicts pictureless actions on paper or canvas, he writes texts about art, poems and songs which he performs on stage. In his new solo exhibition at Astolavos Gallery in Athens, entitled “Ichnographies Choreografes”, Nikos Kryonidis presents a new series of paintings  which while having intrinsic affinities with his first works from 1994-95, are the evolution and transubstantiation of his experiences, but free from the stress of space and time. Large-scale paintings, that the artist always likes, since he knows how to clearly define and control space, since his initial studies were in Architecture, , but also medium sized ones. In all of his works the blending of colors and form results in a dialectical poetic relation, in which abstraction, silence, pause and poetry create a visual choreography. Images like: sunset, dusk, the rippling sea, a light breeze of autumn, pulsate in between, in the middle, in the limit or in the details on Kryonidis’ canvases, unfolding through the shades. Nikos Kryonidis as a true artist and poet says “Traces in the snow, in the cardboard, on canvas, in soil. The footprint with paint that I left on the floor. In the rehearsal, in my walk and in my performance. The touch, the caress in my painting. Designation, contour and precision somatometry. Dashed curved shape, zigzagging, straight. Walking path, color gesture. Breakaway, escape, balance   of a designer, acrobat, dancer … “. As Mr. Manos Stefanidis, professor of art History, notes “…Nikos Kryonidis’ paintings, are firmly in the bounds, in the bounds of luck and intent, of lyricism and drama, of fulfillment and non finito, of self-discipline and  liberality, of speech and silence…”.

Info: Astrolavos Gallery, 11 Xanthippou Street, Dexameni Square, Kolonaki, Athens, Duration: 14/2-28/3/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-15:00 & 18:00-21:00, Sat 11:00-15:00, www.astrolavos.gr