Greek painter Apostolos Georgiou is exhibiting his paintings at Nanhai E-Cool in Shekou. Georgiou is a leading painter in contemporary Greece and is increasingly recognized internationally. For his first exhibition in Asia, the Frank F. Yang Foundation is presenting some of the artist’s most recent works on both canvas and paper along with a selection of works from throughout his career, beginning in the 1970s. U.S. curator Barry Schwabsky has titled the exhibition “Situations,” referring to how these figurative works present not stories, but something more like diagrams of relationships among people and things. Georgiou’ paintings seem absurd and clownish, though slowly the cloud of absurdity disappears and the acts become familiar feelings and situations. He chooses to paint things left unspoken in life: Abrupt outbursts from the inside take shape in the body of his heroes, men and women. Georgiou was born in 1952 and it seems that his heroes are stuck somewhere between now and then. Their passions and obsessions are not of the 50s or of today. They belong to the modern men and women, the one that tries to escape the anxieties of living, our destiny whose source is loneliness, pain and abandonment. Their atmosphere reminds us of Italian films of Neorealism, bodies in architecture, and lost souls in quest of themselves. Georgiou elicits more than aesthetic enjoyment. He presents us head-on with issues previously unaddressed in traditional Greek painting. Giving preference to atmosphere, the artist allows the imagination of the viewer to complete the narrative, leaving it open to wide interpretation. There is pleasure to getting lost in the paintings, like an existential wager or metaphysical challenge submerged between euphoria and doubt. The artist imagines he’s locked in that space, but he must also imagine seeing himself there. His ambivalent role, both actor and audience, accentuates the theatricality. His work is mainly created through pictorial gestures which aren’t purely representative, and his paintings are always untitled, like many abstract works. Dates: Until Aug. 11 Venue: Nanhai E-Cool, 6 Xinghua Road, Shekou, Nanshan District (南山区蛇口兴华路6号南海意库) Metro: Line 2 to Sea World Station (海上世界站), Exit C (SD News) |