Irini Karayannopoulou
01 Apr - 02 May 2009
IRINI KARAYANNOPOULOU
"Hinterland"
01.04.2009 – 02.05.2009
Opening: 1st April 2009, at 19:30
Visiting hours: Tuesday - Friday 11:00 – 20:00, Saturday 12:00 – 16:00
HINTERLAND, Irini Karayannopoulou’s solo exhibition opens on Wednesday, 1st April 2009, at 19.30, at the First Floor of Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre. The exhibition will run until 2nd May 2009.
Rallying samples of mysterious flora, birds in their defiance of gravity, tree trunks at night, ice-cream cones and an assorted mix of equally extraordinary items and circumstances Irini Karayanopoulou turns 200ml-tubes of color into painting. In her solo exhibition, the artist presents small and large-scale works forcing viewers to perform a careful choreography so that they may each time stand at an optimal viewing distance. ‘Irini Karayannopoulou’s painting practice is an idiosyncratic ritual, the articulation of an unpredictable, almost metaphysical idiom. The act of painting, seemingly unconcerned with the formal result, resists the appeal of the drawing, but proves powerless before the onslaught of images. A history of painting, memory and desire, of the hallucinatory effect of turning page after page in so many Manufrance catalogues,’ is what D. Frangos observes in an introductory note on the artist’s work, while Karayannopoulou herself adds that she often refers to her collection of old illustrated editions and encyclopedias in the manner of an explorer without a compass.
Jungles and ancient woodlands, wild butterflies and multicolored flowers appear almost idyllic at first sight. Yet, if one looks closer, they seem filled with a sense of foreboding – something disturbing has just happened, or is imminent: a storm perhaps, or an unexpected encounter, a mysterious disappearance, a crime even. As V. Salpistis aptly remarks, Irini Karayannopoulou’s images intimate the presence of a broader landscape. They are like fragments of foreign correspondence from an imaginary land; like an ancient map, where distant regions – the Hinterland – are drawn by approximation, based on legend and tales, charting only a probable world.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Irini Karayannopoulou, in collaboration with CubeArtEditions, will present My Room Too, a collector’s edition in a limited number of copies.
"Hinterland"
01.04.2009 – 02.05.2009
Opening: 1st April 2009, at 19:30
Visiting hours: Tuesday - Friday 11:00 – 20:00, Saturday 12:00 – 16:00
HINTERLAND, Irini Karayannopoulou’s solo exhibition opens on Wednesday, 1st April 2009, at 19.30, at the First Floor of Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre. The exhibition will run until 2nd May 2009.
Rallying samples of mysterious flora, birds in their defiance of gravity, tree trunks at night, ice-cream cones and an assorted mix of equally extraordinary items and circumstances Irini Karayanopoulou turns 200ml-tubes of color into painting. In her solo exhibition, the artist presents small and large-scale works forcing viewers to perform a careful choreography so that they may each time stand at an optimal viewing distance. ‘Irini Karayannopoulou’s painting practice is an idiosyncratic ritual, the articulation of an unpredictable, almost metaphysical idiom. The act of painting, seemingly unconcerned with the formal result, resists the appeal of the drawing, but proves powerless before the onslaught of images. A history of painting, memory and desire, of the hallucinatory effect of turning page after page in so many Manufrance catalogues,’ is what D. Frangos observes in an introductory note on the artist’s work, while Karayannopoulou herself adds that she often refers to her collection of old illustrated editions and encyclopedias in the manner of an explorer without a compass.
Jungles and ancient woodlands, wild butterflies and multicolored flowers appear almost idyllic at first sight. Yet, if one looks closer, they seem filled with a sense of foreboding – something disturbing has just happened, or is imminent: a storm perhaps, or an unexpected encounter, a mysterious disappearance, a crime even. As V. Salpistis aptly remarks, Irini Karayannopoulou’s images intimate the presence of a broader landscape. They are like fragments of foreign correspondence from an imaginary land; like an ancient map, where distant regions – the Hinterland – are drawn by approximation, based on legend and tales, charting only a probable world.
On the occasion of the exhibition, Irini Karayannopoulou, in collaboration with CubeArtEditions, will present My Room Too, a collector’s edition in a limited number of copies.