About the artist
About the exhibition
Citronne Gallery is hosting Alekos Kyrarinis’ seventeenth solo exhibition. His latest works mark the end of a two-year period of prolific artistic production. 28 large and small-scale works of egg tempera on wood, 10 mixed technique drawings on paper, 5 sculptures in the round or overpainted Tinian marble reliefs (the island of Tinos is the artist’s birthplace) and 1 video clip for an excerpt of the composition by Giorgos Koumendakis, The Pedal Tone of a Child, which is the outcome of the cooperation and mutual respect between the composer and the painter. Through the works of this exhibition, works that encapsulate all the characteristics of his artistry, Kyrarinis complements, extends and further refines a career in painting of almost twenty years.
Since 2004, Kyrarinis has been consistent with his career and artistic vision, painting by painting and exhibition by exhibition, in his own unique personal style and —paraphrasing Plato—works “are turned by him into something nobler”. Kyrarinis’ painting is a fascinating amalgam of influences that have been so utterly assimilated that they have become difficult to distinguish: Islamic calligraphy, Miró’s biomorphism, Picasso’s cubism, Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut, Matisse’s elaborate use of colour, Paul Klee’s thin lines and playful style. Almost always, his subjects include portraits of Angels or Angels defeating evil or Saints-knights spearing dragons, in other words, his subject is essentially one: the conflict between Good and Evil, the former’s domination over the latter. In essence, it is an allegory of human passions. In his works, space is shallow, anti-physiocratic and defies western art’s third dimension, yet with full respect to the achievements of the early 20th-century modernists. Kyrarinis’ draws from the archetypes of the art of the Near East, albeit not exclusively. Those Spotless Archetypes in the words of Fotis Kontoglou, and that is why space in his works is overwhelmed by varied decorative motifs which stem from a very large time frame ranging from the distant past to the present: from the late antiquity to the byzantine and post-byzantine era moving on to popular marble sculpture and woodcarving to Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis. All motifs play an instrumental part in the composition because their use is the result of Kyrarinis’ profound awareness of their symbolism and visual importance.
With Alekos Kyrarinis’ exhibition, entitled, "Visibilium et invisibilium", Citronne Gallery continues with its exhibition programme which aspires to host carefully selected exhibitions of contemporary Greek art and thus, to enrich and provide more insight on contemporary Greek art. The debate between the past and the present is both visible and invisible in Alekos Kyrarinis’ works; it is an active debate on behalf of the artist that is open to multiple interpretations from the viewer.
The exhibition comes with a bilingual catalogue which features comments on all works by Nikolaos Paisios, who is the curator of the exhibition and also an introductory note by Tatiana Spinari, Art Historian and director of Citronne Gallery.
Curator: Nikolaos Paissios
Lighting: Maria Maneta