Ethereal trees that defy conventional form on Aegina

If determination is 1 happening Anastasis Ioannou remembers from his childhood, it’s his begetter stuck among his easels of oils and watercolors, wielding a paintbrush oregon pencil. And there, successful the originative chaos of Stavros Ioannis (1945-2009), a renowned expressionist and pupil of Yannis Moralis, young Anastasis would beryllium astatine his ain tiny easel, mimicking his father. And conscionable arsenic each the signs were pointing to him taking a antithetic way to that of his creator parents (his mother, Sissy Vamvaka, was besides a painter) and pursuing a vocation successful theoretical physics, which is what helium studied astatine the National Technical University of Athens, Anastasis Ioannou had an epiphany conscionable earlier embarking connected a PhD that blew it each retired of the h2o – oregon possibly enactment everything successful its due place.

This, astatine least, is what I felt looking astatine the paintings successful his 3rd solo show, presently moving astatine the Aegina History and Folk Art Museum done September 15.

Ioannou works with his trees successful the aforesaid mode that a portraitist whitethorn enactment with a look oregon a sculpture with a quality fig – Giacometti instantly springs to mind

Titled “Into the Trees,” curated by creation historiographer Christoforos Marinos and held successful the discourse of the 15th Aegina Fistiki Fest, it is the artist’s 2nd solo amusement connected the Saronic Gulf land aft “Harlequins” successful 2020, which is wherever Ioannou (born 1990) spends portion of the year. He besides has a location successful Athens.

Created wrong the past 2 years, his latest bid stars trees, arsenic the rubric suggests, and comes arsenic a benignant of informal continuation of the enactment helium showed past twelvemonth connected the adjacent land of Hydra.

Ioannou’s lipid paintings bash not question the circumstantial oregon the detail; indeed, the dense foliage of spindly trunked trees often resembles shadiness oregon cloud, fluid shapes that are ne'er wholly formed. They bash not marque america deliberation of the earthy world, nor bash they mean to.

Ioannou works with his trees successful the aforesaid mode that a portraitist whitethorn enactment with a look oregon a sculpture with a quality fig – Giacometti instantly springs to mind. The information that helium delves truthful profoundly into the taxable renders him a histrion anatomist. The world is simply suggested, if that, giving his trees a floating prime oregon a consciousness that they person sprung up successful the void. And adjacent though determination are nary quality figues to beryllium seen, his paintings are intelligibly human-centric.

“Elements specified arsenic the trunk, the density of the foliage, the bare space, and the usage of colour arsenic a chromatic tract reminiscent of Rothko intensify the metaphysical magnitude of my images, creating a liminal space,” the creator argues.

His enactment besides draws connections to the past of Greek painting, to the mode that artists similar Konstantinos Parthenis, Michalis Oikonomou, Konstantinos Maleas and Nikolaos Lytras depicted the aforesaid taxable and Greece’s earthy elements much generally. Nevertheless, Ioannou identifies much with the visceral creation of George Bouzianis than with naturalist and post-impressionist trends. “The ethereal prime of his enactment could beryllium associated with the ethereal prime of my trees,” the creator says.