In the context of the sponsorship programme “The great moment for culture: Promotion of new artists”, launched in 2004, six young artists who have graduated with honors from the School of Fine Arts will receive their awards from EFG Eurobank Private Banking Division, on Monday 18th of April 2005, at the new building of the Benaki Museum.
In the context of the sponsorship programme “The great moment for culture: Promotion of new artists”, launched in 2004, six young artists who have graduated with honors from the School of Fine Arts will receive their awards from EFG Eurobank Private Banking Division, on Monday 18th of April 2005, at the new building of the Benaki Museum.
With the support of Eurobank’s Private Banking, an exhibition will also be held where the award-winning artists will have the opportunity to show their work and come in contact with the public.
The aim of Eurobank Private Banking sponsorships programme is to contribute to the establishment of a useful institution that will support and promote Greek contemporary art. This programme is part of the Bank’s wider strategy aimed at a stronger involvement in and constructive contribution to social developments in the community in which it operates. “Through the annual prizes, which will be given given every year to young Greek artists who have excelled in their studies, we are tangibly supporting their efforts and their work, contributing in this way to the promotion of Greek modern art among the public at large” said Mr. Nikos Karamouzis, Eurobank’s Deputy Managing Director.
At the awards event and the opening of the exhibition, the Managing Director of Eurobank, Mr. Nicholas Nanopoulos will deliver a short address, followed by the Rector of the School of Fine Arts, Mr. Chronis Botsoglou thanks to whose valuable cooperation this new initiative was planned and implemented.
The six young laureates are: Leda Dionysia Alexopoulou, Antonis Donev, Andreas Mitropoulos, Anargyros Paschalis, Evangelia Leda Tentoma and Nicoleta Theodora Tsavaki.
The six young laureates are: Leda Dionysia Alexopoulou, Antonis Donev, Andreas Mitropoulos, Anargyros Paschalis, Evangelia Leda Tentoma and Nicoleta Theodora Tsavaki.
Art Historian Dr. Nelly Misirli, the curator of the exhibition that will remain open from Monday 18th of April 2005 until Sunday 8th of May 2005, will introduce the artists’ works.
Attached, Dr. Misirli’s text from the exhibition catalogue.
“Through a variety of expressions and a wide range of perceptions, based on factors of personality, composition and educational background, the young artists whose works are on show at the exhibition, share the common characteristic of true quality in their paintings and a real concern for the present and society. They seem to be aware of the problems that touch them daily, as they attempt to give their own interpretation and their own message. They often appear top be torn by anxiety, some observe events with a sharp eye, while others still try to integrate in their art the new technologies of our present, complex era. They are also characterized by their wider outlook on the world around them, with the immensity of cities, their large avenues, asphyxiating environment and the frequent disintegration of things under changing situations and perceptions. What is interesting, over and above the themes and messages, is their sensitivity in approaching the subject and the effortless way in which they convey the lived experience.
Each artist has his/her own code of artistic communication, sometimes closer to and other times further away from the years of training, but always trying, through exploration, to trace their own course.
Nicoleta Theodora (Loretta) Tsavaki appears to be focusing on the built environment around her, with the large avenues, the bridges, the stations and constructions. She daringly presents aspects of big cities that often look like stage settings, as the streets lead far away, bridges rise gigantically, industrial zones dominate and general aspects at night cause concern. The feeling of isolation, the predominant feature of huge cities today, is present in all her paintings.
Antonis Donev, is also interested in practically the same subject, today’s cities, but his experience talks about a past that is lost, a paradise that has disappeared. On the painting surface fragmented into pieces are dispersed houses, railway tracks, telegraph poles and all kinds of materials, an assembly of disparate objects, which strangely enough, retain all their charm. An aura spreads through disintegration, which, however, carries the signs of nostalgia rather than those of destruction and desolation. This becomes clear also from the use of old dressmaking manikins left and forgotten in houses, useless today in the corners of oblivion. A new mosaic of things grows on them, as the message appears to be that nothing is lost but everything is reconstituted and reborn.
Andreas Mitropoulos’ viewpoint would also be very close to this; influenced by the world of stage setting, he erects complex staircases, bridges, passageways and catwalks that either lead to clearings or to dark paths. His paintings clearly show that present-day man is trapped in dead-ends, unavoidable courses and insurmountable obstacles. The predominant black color reinforces this impression, sometimes though it seems to indicate a way out. Blending different techniques and well-controlled media, he produces an atmosphere of Piranesian complexity in a new, modern staging conception.
If in the three previous artists we can detect similarities at the level of their concerns, Anargyros Paschalis wants to capture not our microcosm and its problems, but something of nature that surrounds us, with the help of color and geometrical forms. Through his hemicycles, which intersect one another, light and darkness alternate or vivid colors burst out from dark spots at the time of this majestic creation. What is interesting is that this experience is as spontaneous and revealing as this moment of the world’s genesis is inexplicable. It may well be of course that his own undefined vision is inherent in his work; what is certain, however, is that he attempts to convey an apocalyptic moment, without descriptions and definitions.
Next to him, Leda Dionysia Alexopoulou, takes us on another distant course, related to different civilizations and their century-old history. She sees dress as their carrier and mode of expression, which, through its transmutation and evolution, can represent the events and what gave these civilizations their originality, without often losing their main characteristics. In this way, the geisha always remains the same symbol, whilst ancient drama with its constant elements incarnates the principles, which were laid down many years ago. Evolution, modernity and tradition coexist in a contemporary perception of a world that changes without, however, moving away from steadfast and immutable values.
Evangelia Leda Tentoma introduces us to the ways of an art of technology or a technology of art; using new techniques she impresses her experiences on sensitized surfaces. Many images together, without cohesion, each separate but in communication, fully convey the feeling of today’s complexity and the mosaic of impressions. Video images speak about variability and the possibility that everything may change from one moment to the next. Despite the use of modern technology, however, Tentoma succeeds in breathing into her work sensitivity and lyricism, particularly when innumerable small lines against a black background branch out and intersect, move elegantly on the surface of infinity.
This journey among the works of these young artists, leads us to the conclusion that free from movements and prescribed directions, they are aware of many of the problems of today’s world, which they try to convey. The future is promising for all of them, provided they can preserve their sincerity and spontaneity”.