astrolavos | art galleries

On Thursday 19 th of April in the artspace of " Astrolavos dexameni " (Xanthippou 11, Kolonaki, tel: 210 7294342, 3, fax: 210 7293317, opening hours: Tu-Fr: 10.30-14.00 and 18.00-21.00, Sat: 10.30-14.30, www.astrolavos.gr ) open two personal exhibitions of paintings and manufactures by Ariadni Vitastali , entitled: " Wishing Gates " and a photography exhibition by Theodoros Oikonomakis , entitled: " Nature and Nature Perspectives ".

Ariadni Vitastali will exhibit mixed-medium works, which are conceptually connected to notions of gratitude, celebration, festivity, creative quest, energy and art itself in different technological and stylistic expressions. Her semi-surrealistic compositions vary between warm colors and different shades of red. Works are presented like wishing gates, windows in narrations and different eye-sights upon dreamlike routes.

In these works of art an abstract expressionism is successfully combined with some pictorial, morphological motives, which are introduced in sections and/or brokenly into the synthesis. This way the viewer is referred to these tiny 'openings'- gates, to strange, oneiric worlds, into nature as a unit and as lost paradise into the conscious and unconscious mind. These works create energetic hives and could be compared to the results of meditation, calmness, peace, harmony, the transcendence over the mortal, material world. The paradox lies in the fact that the artist, in this procedure, loves to use simple, economic materials. For example, she uses paper which through design and thin slices she intervenes on it and with collage the works become something unique. The color palette, as it shown within the geometric framework of the works enlists the four basic elements - fire, water, wind, earth. Basically, the artist uses the opportunity to create, thought these elements, a feast of surrealistic colors; commixtures and diffusions of one color within another. The works' theme, is often the superficial occasion, while the true reason is the painting itself and the supreme accomplishment is the 'aura' the artwork emits.

The positive and optimistic look towards the world that surrounds us but also towards life itself is presented in the artistic photographic creations of Theodoros Oikonomakis, entitled: "Nature and Nature Perspectives".

The dipole reversal-perspective, dominates in the way the artist photographically approaches its themes.

By subverting the reality of the image, through techniques of picture reversal and their projection from different angles and the technique of photographic composition between different themes inside the same picture, the artist manages to subvert the laws of gravity.

This scheduled procedure in time leads the viewer, first visually and later on subconsciously, in the metaphoric transcendence of optics and logic and keeps him/her bound within a specified reality. It gives a chance to human beings in following their outmost dreams- flying on dream.

The nature images, as they are presented by Theodoros Oikonomakis, do not simply imprint but wish to record. The artist-photographer sees behind the photographic lens our world's horizons, realistic or not. His images, surrealistic in synthesis and in technical attribution, with surrealistic colors and surrealistic infiltration, with purity and detail of theme but also friskiness, alterations and oppositions against the non-specified and implicit, are distinguished by absolute sensitivity with which they elevate the glory, but also the limits of nature- its vastness and microcosm. Through this detailed observation of these two extremities, the artist escapes human measures and explores the conditionally infinitive, and the non-restrictive.

Throughout this photographic- artistic procedure, the dream world, the hope and the 'obsession' for Good, are inbred characterists which manage to dominate against any exterior adversities.