2023.08.20 — 2023.10.15

Apostolos Georgiou

Aranya Art Center is delighted to present an eponymous solo exhibition by Greek artist Apostolos Georgiou, featuring nearly 30 works on canvas and paper completed from 2017 to 2023.

Introduction

Like the absurd and witty sketches on stage, Georgiou portrays anonymous figures using coarse brushwork, modeled on the artist himself and symbolizing a community of his contemporaries. “I am an ordinary person who shares the joys, sorrows, desires, and fears of everyone,” the artist explains. The figures seem intimate yet indifferent to each other, preoccupied with their little worlds, either wearily or comically coping with life. The artist claims his works are “failed representations,” which is not necessarily a pessimistic expression; instead, he willingly shares with the viewer that “I have also been frustrated.” These performative figures and images are symbolic in revealing the alienation in contemporary relationships and the dilemma of individual existence.

In Georgiou’s paintings, we may observe many familiar life scenes. However, the “everyday” is not his subject, but rather translates the “thoughts and ideas” from his everyday life into pictures. Since these specific ideas may not come true, their narrative and logic hence come undone when depicted, resulting in a pictorial anachronism that brings about many missing meanings. Like traps, such missing pieces lure the viewer to introspect into their own lives. Georgiou considers himself a provocateur, and his painted work “wouldn't lie,” concealing a serious creative attitude beneath his dark humor.

Georgiou is also a jazz aficionado, and this exhibition will feature the artist’s carefully compiled playlist to accompany the viewing experience of the show, offering a diverse cultural perspective to dive into the artist's creative world.

This exhibition is organized by Damien Zhang, director of Aranya Art Center and curatorial assistant Gao Liangjiao.

Special thanks to gb agency.

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Installation Views

About

Artist

Apostolos Georgiou’s work explores themes of man’s existence by focusing on the human condition. While making reference to Greece in the 1950s, film, the traditions of Greek painting, and even theatrical scenery, Georgiou highlights profound feelings of alienation, solitude and humor. While human beings are the main subject of the work, they are portrayed as anonymous figures without any individual characteristics. A desolate alter ego is revealed, portrayed with irony and distance yet also with tenderness and empathy.

Apostolos Georgiou was born in 1952 in Thessaloniki and he lives and works in Athens and Skopelos. Georgiou participated in Documenta 14 in 2017 and his works are in the collection of leading international institutions and museums such as EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Solo exhibitions include: Hello Dog, Hello Sir!, Passerelle, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Brest (2020); One by One, Rodeo Piraeus, Athens (2020); Nothing Is Old Because We Are Too Young, gb agency, Paris (2019); Situations, 40-year retrospective, (curated by Barry Schwabsky), Frank F. Yang Art and EducationFoundation, Shenzhen (2018); Tightrope Walk: Painted Images after Abstraction, (curated by Barry Schwabsky), White Cube, London (2015); Apostolos Georgiou, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2012); Apostolos Georgiou, Paintings, EMST, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2011), etc.