In Vasilis Karakatsanis exhibition, that will be inaugurated on Tuesday the 14th of June at "ASTROLAVOS artlife" Art Gallery (11 Irodotou str, Kolonaki, tel: 210 7221200, 4, fax: 210 7221304, www.astrolavos.gr, opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday: 11.00-15.00, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 11.00-20.30), some basic components and axes of Pop Art are expressed through an artistic language, whose thematic content consists of symbols of the consumer society, where the urban environment and its syntactic is registered.
Catching and reproducing, through his personal stylistic idiom, the elements of modern urban culture, the artist comes to a fetishistic contact with each of his object-model. The simple, monochromatic, white or neutral motives of his works bring out the brightness and polychrome of the "objects" that dominate in the center of each picture with their intense shades.

The matiera of each material, that composes these objects, whether it is wood, or textile, is explicitly attributed in a mystic, but not photographically realistic way. The materials' textures bring out their substance - the warmth of fine-crafted turning wood or the soft texture of the textile. The chromatic range of the artist, even though it concerns modern "objects", has intense influences from his place of origin. The blue and light blue colors of textiles remind of the blue and azure Greek sea and sky. The warm orange-yellow and brown earthy tones of wood irradiate the warmth of sun and Greek land. On the contrary, the elaborate drawings on the textiles of the armchairs, the clothes and the rest objects, as well as their morphoplastic depiction, have the character of the European culture and fashion of the middle of 20th century, as well as certain elements that declare the style and aesthetics of previous centuries, as for example the chairs of Louis XV type. Furthermore the influences of the European movement of Surrealism are obvious, in regard to the way that the artist isolates the different objects in front of the austere monochromatic motive and presents them hanging, abstract from any syntactic element of the environmental space.

The intense geometry of the check designs of dresses, umbrellas, tablecloths and textiles that cover chairs and armchairs, are presented in such a calligraphic way, that remind sample book for modern wallpapers and textiles. The artist’s persistence-subsistence for the attribution of the texture of textile, wood and generally the design of objects is recognized as a constitutive element of a post modern perception of Pop Art, where the pop character is connected with the art movement of New Realism. Finally through the approach above and failing human forms from the specific unit of the artist's work, the objects are reduced to fetish elements and through an artistic metaphorical approach, they obtain personality. The relation between human and these material objects, even if it is not represented on canvas, is eloquent in a second conceptual level. Furthermore the relation between human existence and the passions and the consuming necessities is approached with distinguishable irony. What do the clothes that we wear or the objects that we have in our houses have to tell about our personal identity, character and particularities? Karakatsanis brings these elements in a first level, either through his canvases or through his constructions and so he places with a vital way and a painting language the above questions, concerning the urban perception and the conscious or subconscious wishes of person.

Duration of exhibition: until 2nd of July.