adgallery

ART IN THE TIME OF COLLAPSE

22.09.10 - 06.11.10

Anastasis Stratakis, Untitled (from the ''Pascal-Napoleon'' series), 2007, pencil on paper, 4 X 3 cm

prev  Set 1/3  next























 

 

This show attempts to explore the way the period that preceded the collapse of the economy and politics, was impressed in the artistic oeuvre, which type of pictures did the previous decade give birth to and how is it portrayed on them.

The artists contemplating on the social reality, they seek to impress its panorama, while abandoning partial profit for a broader one.

In this direction they abandon linguistic formulations that are connected with the modernist vision for a continuous improvement of social institutions to profit the many and express a kind of “New Realism”, the characteristics of which spring rather from the directness of sense than thought itself.

Natural landscape acquires the characteristics of urban and threat the character of unverifiable, carrying both a sense of waiting and acceptance. As if we are waiting for something to happen but we do not know what it is, nor when it will take place.

In the case where the picture is anthropocentric, references to social or interpersonal relations are lacking and the fall-back to an internal world becomes the central point of reference, whether man is present or implied. The intense charge substitutes the role of reasonable activities in the capturing as well as in the construction of the pictures and the artist consciously resigns from the rational control of the painting surface, from the handing-over of role and moral responsibility during the organization of his work, attributing this way to his internal viewing, the characteristics of a new reality which appears doubtless.

Away from any attempt of “universal narration” artists depict the social scene as simple snapshots, without any drama, reflecting the position of the citizen who feels betrayed by the pledges of enlightenment as regards to the establishment of a society of welfare and equal opportunities, and stand with distrust towards Reason and towards guarantees of progress.

In the exhibition participate the following artists: Alexandros Avranas, Vangelis Gokas, Yiorgos Kordakis, Maria Loizidou, Panagiotis Loukas, Nikos Markou, Caroline May, Maria Polyzoidou, Vassilis Polychronakis, Anastasis Stratakis, Vassilis Vassilakakis


Exhibition Duration: 22 September – 6 November 2010

 image gallery