Río abajo río
This was a long, slow and sun-filled weekend. Sipping tea at my desk, this is what I’m left with by nightfall on Sunday. An experimentation with recycled paper, japanese decorative paper, marker, pencil and… eyeshadow.
ekplixi (surprise) 3
In November 2011 I participated once more in the charity art project Ekplixi 3 (Surprise 3) that has become a yearly institution in the art scene of Athens by now. Artists are being offered a canvas of identical size and are required to create anything they would like on it and use it in any way that they wish, as long as they do not sign on the front side. All works are then gathered and exhibited for an entire weekend and then they get sold for a fixed price of 50 euros each on a “first come-first serve” basis. The idea behind this project is that you get to buy what you see and like (and is also available) without knowing who the creators are. All profits go for the support of the homeless people in Athens, that increase day by day.
This year I collaborated with my friends and fellow artists BooHaHa, Simek and Greg Papagrigoriou on three different canvas co-productions.
I also donated three of my paintings for the “i-Dream” parallel exhibition that was also taking place simultaneously by the same organisers, and a percentage of the sale profits would also be going for the causes of supporting homeless people in Athens.
Here is a link to the article of the newspaper “Proto Thema” with the pictures of all three pieces of my work as the cover photo of the article.
Simek/Boohaha/Joad
Boohaha/Joad
Joad/Greg Papagrigoriou
“Thug Life”. Barely readable wall scribbling outside the Binnengasthuisstraat UvA building in Amsterdam
street poem
This poem has a strange story behind it, which I still haven’t managed to untangle.
Around 2005 I think, I had painted this wall with Cash, Reis and Dan. Months later, after returning to the same spot at Avdi square in Kerameikos/Athens, I found my girl partly defaced and vandalised, things scribbled all over her body and holes dug in the plaster where her eyes used to be. Then, surprised I looked up and found this poem written right above her by someone, about three meters from the ground, something that made the intentionality of the author quite obvious, since he (gender extrapolated from the adjective gender suffixes used int he poem) would have to bring a ladder to reach that high up the wall and write.
I know most people would say that this was most probably accidental, and that it quite possibly had nothing to do with my drawing, but for me, there never was the slightest doubt between the interconnection of the poem with the girl. To this day I remain convinced that somehow this poem is connected to my girl, and I would really love to know the person who wrote it.
It reads:
Walking the usual route
years now, every day, and again and again and
again with the eyes counting the lines on the
sidewalk slabs immersed in a void without
thoughts or will for thoughts hypnotized
a sensation awakened me a laugh shook me
and suddenly I saw you! and then
I understood: I could not recognise you any more
pillaged as you were… and then I remembered
that with you I grew up that on these slabs
I used to play that I smoked my first cigarette
on the bench whose place now the chairs
and the tables of the new cafeteria have taken
and so, slowly I forgot you as well…
either way I felt turned away
“Dia de los Muertos” sleeping mask
Hand-sewn and painted travel sleeping mask created for my friend Dimitris, with a rather spooky theme. I guess noone would dare wake him up on a plane!
fan art
A photomontage sent to me by a fan (an actual film maker here in Greece) [still it’s quite difficult for me to use this word] with the girl I had painted in the living room of a friend, applied on the wall of a traditional greek island house and real birds flying off her hair. He found my work online and emailed this back to me. I find it exceptionally beautiful and well executed. Thank you!
me on a scaffolding during Remap KM event in 2007 (Athens/Greece)
sinner or saint
Altough I’m nowhere close to being religious, here is an experimentation with christian orthodox iconography on a piece of driftwood I had collected from the sea and had lying around in my room… I aimed at a replication of the clothes as they are traditionally depicted in religious icons, while maintaining the regular face I draw on my girls.
red guava
A few weeks ago I was asked by my friend Dean Linaras to design a logo for his IT company “Red Guava”. So after looking for a little too long to images of guavas found on the net (you see it’s not such a common fruit around this part of the world - I don’t even know what it tastes like to this day), a little experimentation and brainstorming, here is what I came up with. One thing is for sure, it’s a truly beautiful fruit, with such vibrant and succulent colours!
playground
What was your favorite game when you were children? Make sure not to miss the visual responses of 33 up and coming Greek graphic designers to this question, on this year’s SEEAR (See & Hear) interactive audiovisual exhibition.
Among them, some of my most talented friends: Simek, Boo haha!, Don40, Greg Papagrigoriou. Opening: November 11th.
Support local artists! Support fucking thought and imagination!
Where? Vryssaki, Space of Art and Action
Vryssakiou 17, Plaka (near Monastiraki metro station)
