astrolavos | art galleries

On Tuesday 13 of May 2008, in the art space of Astrolavos Dexameni (Xanthippou 11, Kolonaki, tel: 210 7294343, 3, fax: 210 7293317, www.astrolavos.gr, opening hours: Tu-Fr 10.30-14.00 & 18.00-21.00, Sat 10.30-14.30), opens an exhibition with paintings by Elena Papadimitriou, entitled: 'Deja vu: Stories of Reflection' (lower gallery level) and the painting exhibition of Giorgos Prassas, entitled: 'Simple Images or the Art of Minimal', (middle gallery level).

Elena Papadimitriou in this new, individual exhibition works with basic axis- protagonist to her work, the woman form and representations of female figures thus creating psychographic portraits with emphasis on the look and its expressive power. The style of her painting varies amongst realistic and surrealistic attributions of each subject; with strong atmosphere, illusionist games and optical illusion.

The way of approach and composition of the female forms in the painting composition, is characterized by some unique, weird perspective presentations on the painted border of the canvas, on wood or mirror, the material base of her synthesis which she paints with oil colour and crayons, gold and silver leafs, papers, acrylic colours, ink and water colours this way creating magical images.

Female faces in her work appear faultless, as if they come from glossy magazines with characteristics referring to women coming from different exotic civilizations. Very often is created between figure and background a game of simplicity -

multiplicity amongst the void of the compositional base and synthesis and in the variety of the decorative motives which adorn the figures clothes.

The artist claims: 'words become images; I have always found words poorer than images. How many more vague ideas? How many colours and substances? How many wants and feels searching for their words?

I wanted to paint these exact moments. Sentimental situations, familiar, repetitive thoughts. These exact moments, which I have re-lived, not so much in morphology but in sentiment. Each and every work is a picture on my mind, before it even begins.' Figures of uncanny charm narrate their stories through moments frozen in time. Internal cases and psychological quotes through symbolisms and repeated motives - inspired or/and borrowed sometimes by different civilizations and different ages- decorate the simplified by shades and shadowing colours of the figures, which are isolated by their reflection into the mirror.

Each and every work is a different story always seen by a different perspective.

During the same period of time in the middle gallery level are presented works of Giorgos Prassas, in an exhibition entitled: ' Simple images or the Art of Minimal'.

It is a collection of pictures with simple colour motives and drawings. With thematic variety and common axis, with reference to basic picture elements; these are works that maintain their character. It is a silent enlisting of everyday life with poetic mood, sense of meter and simplicity revealing immediate influence from minimalism, childhood art and cinematic framing. These works are a try to look at known subjects of painting - dead natures, portraits, internal spaces, objects or ethnographic scenes, with a contemporary perception, artistic look and fantasy. The artist's design means are simple. He works with basic colours, leaving large part of the canvas/paper empty. His preference in the watercolour is evident, on which he ads water-diluted colours with acrylics, as a result he combines fine colour transparencies at times with similar and antithetic graduations, in such a way that it maintains the purity of colors.

Figures and objects stand simple as the causes, so that the artist speaks with a painting language and exalts as substantial protagonists of his works, the color and the synthesis in a afresh and unique personal stigma.