PREVIEW: Catch The Sun
The group exhibition “Catch the Sun” is organized by the Lab A’ of Sculpture of Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), under the professorship of Nikos Tranos in the Annex of ASFA in Hydra- Tompazis Mansion. “Catch the Sun” is opening on Sat. June 11, 12:00, with works by: Evgenia Vereli, Nikos Giabanis, Dimitris Gketsis, Niovi Kafantari, Jenny Leotsinidi, Dimitris Neveskiotis, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou and Katerina Chatzikosti.
“Dedicated to my lovers” by Evgenia Vereli, is a summer journey through mountains, valleys, storms and highways, making references in the heroes of her teenage years: from the Blue period of Pablo Picasso and the walk of Peter in “The Tiger in the Shop Window” by Alki Zei, to the breast feedings by Frida Kahlo, Michael Jackson’s and her favorite Holden Caulfield in the “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger. She is following them by instinct always having pairs of eyes watching her everywhere, reminding her of the huge sign in the Valley of Ashes of the Great Gatsby. An adventure that unfolds like a cat and a dog meeting on a hot summer afternoon. Nikos Giabanis on his canvas creates extraterrestrial forms, space colors and unexplored textures, in an effort to make the viewer feel a foreign material environment through the eyes of rovers and telescopes in his work entitled “Landing on Mars”. Dimitris Gketsis work deals with issues of gender and identity, with references to Antiquity and the Renaissance, traversing a personal path in order to explore today’s issues and matters. At the center of his work is metamorphosis and myth, expressing allegorical-almost metaphorical concepts and relationships that concern him and he explores them…
Niovi Kafantari’s sculpture “The criminal Life of Acribaldo (after Buñuel)” is inspired by the characteristic scene of the film, where the living “object” of lust coexists with its effigy (a plastic doll exactly the same as the natural person) made by the protagonist. From the shame revealed by his fetish, the protagonist tries violently to hide the doll. In his attempt, the leg detaches from the body, the camera centers on the detached member, and the frame contains only one fake leg. By transferring this frame “here and now”, the cinematic depiction becomes a single thing (a cross between cinematography and sculpture), alive and dead. A marble part of the body, unnatural, of undefined identity but also intensely fetishistic. With references to Υ2Κ aesthetic with tech optimism this wonderful yet dangerous platform heel has also developed different concepts over time– in some cases it symbolizes sex work , drag queen & gender expression. Femininity “used against me”, but shoes now work as a retrieval of this femininity. The artwork invites us to wonder what is now the “criminal” life of the insidious desires and fantasies. Through fluid amorphous masses, and tumors that defy gravity and stand in space like icy volcanic eruptions,
Jenny Leotsinidi creates sculptures with smooth surfaces that reflect archetypal symbols that exist in our soul. They encompass images dealing with the cycle of completion of life and the human being and function as a mapping of the path to consciousness. Her works are a journey from the material to the spiritual. Contemporary symbols mix up with free interpretations of Tarot illustrations, thus creating the alphabet of an emotional language that analyzes the mysteries that are within our soul. Dimitris Neveskiotis creates sculptures and paintings that refer to childhood and innocence, that coexist between painting, graffiti and comics, serious and funny, between a world that precedes and a world that follows with stronger meeting point the present and everything takes place now, his sculptures – are small ceramics that remind us of the past, but through the eyes of a young artist who is interested to enunciate the visual language of his generation.
Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou presents a sculpture entitled “Lillie from the PinkFullMoon Community” that is a part of her installation with the same title, a project based on the concepts of care, solidarity and the resistance in the dystopian and post-apocalyptic times. Lillie is member of the PinkFullMoon Community, consisting of oversized, wild and gentle, vicious but also cute creatures that seek intimacy and can be touched and hugged. Hybrid creatures of the night and the underground, vampire bats and at the same time anthropomorphic non-apologetic femininities. Her accessories declare her involvement in the rest of the community. She is wearing extravagant high heels with queer political messages she wrote with her friends, punk accessories and jewelry inspired by the BDSM scene, such as chains, rings, earrings. Their community care is the foundation for their survival in a dystopian world that could be perceived as a metaphor of today. Katerina Chatzikosti focusing on the construction of confusing, imaginary worlds, in her drawings focuses on the creation of complex syntheses whose stimulus are drawn from fragments of everyday, trivial impressions that with their own immediacy generate the prospect of an associative malleability. She experiments with the form which generates artistic implications in relation to space, time, and imprint. She explores textures of materiality and sound, temperature and light as well as the state of continuous and perpetual movement, tension, pause and friction.
Participating Artists: Evgenia Vereli, Nikos Giabanis, Dimitris Gketsis, Niovi Kafantari, Jenny Leotsinidi, Dimitris Neveskiotis, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou and Katerina Chatzikosti.
Photo: Preparing the exhibition “Catch the Sun”, Photo: © dreamideamachine.com
Info: Curator: Efi Michalarou, Hydra Annex of ASFA (Athens School of Fine Arts)-Emm. Tompasis Mansion, Opening: Sat, 11/6/2022, 12:00, Duration: 11/6-3/7/22, Days & Hours: Daily 17:00-21:00
The exhibition is held with the Support of KEDY YDRAS
Media Partners: dreamideamachine, ARTVIEWS
