06.11.2013 - 14.12.2013
AD Gallery presents the first solo show by Anastasis Stratakis in Athens entitled “An Endless Present”.
Truth claim photography is the term that was used by Tom Gunning in order to descrive the prevailent belief that traditional photographs depict reality with accuracy. He states that the allegation about truth concerns both the recording and the visual accuracy of the photographs.
Images have a strong effect on people, especially the “direct images” because of their capability to put the viewer in the photographer’s place, to transform him to an “irrefutable witness”. The stronger the viewer’s aesthetic pleasure is, the more the viewer enters “uncomplainingly” in the place of the eyewitness.
In his “images” Anastasis Stratakis uses two kinds of drawing, the digital and the traditional with pencils and ink. The viewer is not aware whether the persons, the locations, the objects and their details are true or made up. Whether the moment of recording is one or many, whether the final image refers to one or to different historical moments or whether it is a product “invented” by the artist.
The confusion is accentuated by the painter’s gesture who juxtaposes the “realism” of the painting’s narration to the “realism” of photography. However, in some cases the “truth” is captured by the photographic image and in some others by the drawing. In the show a series of portraits in indoor locations is presented with obvious social and era characteristics both in the clothing of the depicted persons, the furniture and the architectural arrangement. But what kind of image do we have in front of us?
Stratakis is using his drawing skill and his research on how the visual narration functions in order to refer to the construction of the Historical Narration. In the exhibition a work having as a theme the popular image of the “secret school” is being presented. Here the artist “plays” with the work’s size in order to characterize the truth of the alleged existence of such a school during the Turkish occupation in Greece. In the current group show entitled “Afresh: A New Generation of Greek Artists” hosted at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Stratakis is participating with three works by the same series.
Lastly, the construction of historical narrative and its different versions form a triptych on the Mountain Government that was established in 1944 in mountainous Evritania in Greece at the initiative of EAM (National Liberation Front).
Exhibition duration: November 6 – December 12, 2013
image gallery
Untitled (Unbestimmtheit #1), 2012-13, digital print and acrylic ink on fine art paper, 29,7 Χ 21 cm
AD Gallery presents the first solo show by Anastasis Stratakis in Athens entitled “An Endless Present”.
Truth claim photography is the term that was used by Tom Gunning in order to descrive the prevailent belief that traditional photographs depict reality with accuracy. He states that the allegation about truth concerns both the recording and the visual accuracy of the photographs.
Images have a strong effect on people, especially the “direct images” because of their capability to put the viewer in the photographer’s place, to transform him to an “irrefutable witness”. The stronger the viewer’s aesthetic pleasure is, the more the viewer enters “uncomplainingly” in the place of the eyewitness.
In his “images” Anastasis Stratakis uses two kinds of drawing, the digital and the traditional with pencils and ink. The viewer is not aware whether the persons, the locations, the objects and their details are true or made up. Whether the moment of recording is one or many, whether the final image refers to one or to different historical moments or whether it is a product “invented” by the artist.
The confusion is accentuated by the painter’s gesture who juxtaposes the “realism” of the painting’s narration to the “realism” of photography. However, in some cases the “truth” is captured by the photographic image and in some others by the drawing. In the show a series of portraits in indoor locations is presented with obvious social and era characteristics both in the clothing of the depicted persons, the furniture and the architectural arrangement. But what kind of image do we have in front of us?
Stratakis is using his drawing skill and his research on how the visual narration functions in order to refer to the construction of the Historical Narration. In the exhibition a work having as a theme the popular image of the “secret school” is being presented. Here the artist “plays” with the work’s size in order to characterize the truth of the alleged existence of such a school during the Turkish occupation in Greece. In the current group show entitled “Afresh: A New Generation of Greek Artists” hosted at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Stratakis is participating with three works by the same series.
Lastly, the construction of historical narrative and its different versions form a triptych on the Mountain Government that was established in 1944 in mountainous Evritania in Greece at the initiative of EAM (National Liberation Front).
Exhibition duration: November 6 – December 12, 2013
image gallery