On Friday, 3 rd of November 2006 open in ASTROLAVOS dexameni (Xanthippou 11, Kolonaki, tel: 210 7294342, 3, fax: 210 7293314) three individual exhibitions. In the lower level of the gallery there will be presented works by a Greek artist of Diaspora, Aristodimos Kaldis (1899-1979). In the middle level of the art space, Nanos Valaoritis will exhibit painting works and collages; on the top level of the gallery, Natasha Christely will present mixed media works, manufactures and jewelry.

Aristodimos Kaldis , even though he is not widely known in the broad Greek art- loving crowd, he has been one of the few Greek artists of his generation who, during 1940-79 has been distinguished by closely working and exhibiting with important foreign artists in the USA .

Kaldis left Greece in a very young age in order to travel to Paris ; later on he permanently migrated to the USA , where he collaborated with Diego Rivera in mural creation for the WPA. It was Rivera himself who instigated that Kaldis should be more actively involved with painting. Consequently, Kaldis from 1940 onwards dedicated himself in his art, not only by painting and taking part in numerous individual and group exhibitions but also by giving lectures in universities and writing articles for valid art magazines, like 'It Is' magazine (publ. by Philip Pavia). Kaldis exhibited not only in N.Y galleries, but also in Philadelphia , Miami- Florida , Baltimore , Long Island and else where. One of the most important group shows, in which he participated while in life, was an exhibition entitled: ' The Thirties' which was organized by the Poindexter Gallery ( New York ) in 1958. Besides Kaldis participated artists were: Pollock, Krasner, De Kooning, Brandt, Graham, Gorky , Kline, Reinhart, Resnick and Rothko. It is important to note, that Kaldis has been twice awarded (1975 and 1978) honorary fellowships from the Guggenheim Museum , where as even after his death works have been exhibited in retrospective exhibitions in the USA .

In this first Kaldis retrospective in Greece , there will be exhibited works of large dimensions, oils on canvasses, mainly scenery paintings. The Greek landscape, as a source of inspiration, depicted through abstract expressionism, composes the main axis of Kaldis thematography. Semi-abstract pastoral illusions of Greece 'hunting' the artists' imagination clearly influenced by Kandinskys early works and the scenery paintings of Bonnard. Kaldis works are distinguished by a highly personal and authentic style, both in design terms and color use. The artist knows when to stop placing the color, this is a characteristic of his which separates him from naive painters; as a result he is capable of complete commitment to simplicity.

His works both as a unity and isolated, create a metaphysical atmosphere, with surrealistic colors and broad brush strokes. Kaldis himself claimed that he used: 'the best canvasses, brushes and colors', thus revealing the passion for his work, yet refusing the title primitive , since his compositions are 'fruits' of deeper artistic search, both in practical and theoretical level.

Aristodimos Kaldis was born on the 15th of August 1899 by Efstratios and Ourania Kaldi, in Dekeleia (Turkey) and grew up in Mytilini (Lesvos), Greece.
He graduates from the Evangelika Seminary of Smyrna.

Everything Kaldis paints is invested with the passion and extravagance of his personality, which is given to uncontained outbursts of feeling and a whimsical ebullience.

May 3rd1979, New York Times
Obituary by C. Gerald Fraser

1915 Takes over management of Kaldis shipping company.
1916 Immigrates to Boston, Massachutes via Newport News, Virginia.
1919 Visits Paris.
1920 Studies writing and accounting procedure at LaSalle Business College.
1922 Worker and interpreter at Hood Rubber Company, Watertown, MA.
1930 Migrates to N.Y, becomes an economist for Hotel and Restaurant
Workers Union, leads the Waldorf-Astoria strike.
1934 Meets Laurie Elaine Eglington, art critic and editor of Art News at home of dancer Maria Theresa, adoptive daughter of Isadora Duncan.
1934-38 Writer and Administrator for the Mural Division of the Art Project (WPA) New York City, meets Kline, Gorky, Rothko and De Kooning.
1938-39 Travels to England, France, Italy and Greece to visit relatives.
1940 Laurie Eglington Kaldis separates from Kaldis and moves to Buffalo with son Guy. Works as assistant to Directors, Andrew Ritchie and Gordon Washburn. Kaldis works as a full time painter in N.Y.
1941 December, his first one-man show in the Artists Gallery, N.Y. Dr. Albert Barnes acquires Negro Looking at Modern Art, first living American artist to be so honored.
1942 November, one-man show at Carlen Galleries, Philadelphia.
1944-50 Carnegie Hall, Key to Modern Art Lecture Series, studio, Bill De Kooning assists by running the lantern slide projector.
1946 Lecturer at the Rand School.
1948 May, Artists Gallery group show.
1950 Washington Square Inn group show.
1951 Artists Gallery group show.
November, Leonardo Da Vinci lecture, Miami- Florida
December, Artists Gallery, one-man show.
1956 September, Reunion on Lexington Avenue, Artists Gallery.
1957 April, large picture of Kaldis with scarf, cover of Village Voice
October, The Thirties, group show, with Pollock, Krasner, De Kooning, Brandt, Davis, Graham, Gorky, Kline, Reinhart, Resnick, Rothko, at the Pointdexter Gallery.
1957-59 Articles in It Is magazine, published by Philip Pavia.
1959 April 19 picture in New York Times
April, personal exhibition in Steward-Marean Gallery
November, article on Color Plates in Art News
November, Rome-N.Y. Foundation, foreword by Herbert Read.
1962 Museum of Modern Art, Spolero International Exhibition, traveling exhibition for one year.
October, personal exhibition in Kornblee Gallery
November, Painting for the front page of Art News
1964 Personal exhibition in Kornblee Gallery.
1965 June, Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto Exhibit
September, Hecksher Museum, Huntington Long Island.
1966 Art USA show, New York Coliseum
August, guest lecturer in Oregon University. Exhibition Kornblee Gallery.
1971 Samos workshop, taught at the Phythagorean School of Art.
1974 118 Artists in Landmark Gallery 1974, 1975
1975 Guggenheim Fellow in Painting.
1977 May, NOEMATA, Brooklyn Museum, group show of Greek-American
Artists
September, personal exhibition in Kornblee Gallery
November, group exhibition with De Kooning, Krasner, Brandt at
Philadelphia College of Art, Lecture.
1978 Second Guggenheim Fellowship, WPA show in Grey Art Gallery, N.Y University.
November, personal exhibition in Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore.
Lecture in Maryland College of Art.
November 23, lecture at Parsons School.
1979 May 2, dies at the age of 79.
1993 January 12, Homage to Kaldis, Artists Equity Panel at Art Student League
Exhibition in Broome Street Gallery, New York
1999 Modern Odysseys; Greek American Artists of the 20th Century
Exhibition at Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York
Exhibition in the Hellenic Foundation for Greek Art, New York
2000 Exhibition in College Gallery, Staten Island, New York.

In the middle gallery level there will be exhibited works on paper and collages, by the famous writer and poet Nanos Valaoritis . The artists involvement with plastic arts is not widely known, it dates from 1954-56 when he was in Paris painting objects he found in the local markets. However, in this exhibition he will present subsequent works, mainly from the period 1968-1976 (seven year Military Coup), a period of time during which Valaoritis stayed in California , USA , teaching in the ' San Francisco State University '. As Valaoritis claims: 'These works were a psychological relief from the stress of teaching and the political situation in Greece , which made me absolutely furious.' Some of these works are used as a satire for certain military personalities and other situations.

The way Valaoritis drew his sketches was of surrealistic inspiration. Most of them are automatic drawings made on the spot, directed by the hand and the eye. Many poets during the remarkable period if surrealism, from 1920 until the death of Breton, wrote and made artifacts, drawings and paintings.

The relation between poetry and the plastic arts starts with Baudelaire and finds its peak in the movement of the surrealists. One should not forget that even during the 19 th C. Victor Hugo designed in a very inspiring way.

In general, Valaoritis considers the plastic arts as a continuation of poetic inspiration. The colors of the works, made by color pens and thin pens are inspired by Alchemy and Astrology, evident is the artists' interest for these cryptic sciences. The unreal creatures, the vivid colors and the unorthodox- surrealistic- compositions, give off a rather mysterious atmosphere and refer to epochs past or future.
On the upper level of the gallery is presented the individual exhibition of Natasha Christely , with jewelry and artifacts, entitled: Balancing between Color and Matter . The artists manufactures, as an extension of her painting, present motives inspired mainly by the natural environment, two and three dimensional. It was the artists need to express herself in the three dimensions that led her into designing jewelry. The materials the artist has used so far are silver, arzanto and semi-precious stones. In this exhibition side to the silver jewelry she exhibits a group of jewelry and artifacts created by cloth, paper, wire, plastic, etc.

Cloth, as a material, in its airy texture and different qualities, with vivid and smooth colors in conjunction with paper, wire and the rest of her materials, gave the artist the opportunity to create light compositions, full of color in contrast to the coolness of metal. Both these units of her work presented in this exhibition balance each other since each and one of them provide new means of expression.

Duration of Exhibitions: Saturday 2 of December 2006