Yorgos Stamkopoulos (b.1983, Katerini, Greece) presents intricate color compositions of acrylics on canvas that carry the poetic titles of the songs that inspired them. With bright, rich colors, fluorescent or in glaring contrast with each other -characteristic of psychedelic and hard-edge painting- all works share the key effect of horror vacui/cenophopia (Latin/Greek = “fear of empty space”). The artist uses color to bombard us with energy. He does not try to imitate nature; what he is trying to achieve through color, shape and composition is to create an experience that runs parallel to our optical reality. His approach of activating the picture surface involves building a system of apparent layers of colors, drips and drops, saturation and fading. The end-result may bare affinities to Jackson Pollock’s drip painting technique and Frank Stella’s exploration of fluorescent colors but it even more strikingly references Andy Warhol’s pioneering psychedelic light shows of the mid’60s. Painting for Stamkopoulos as William C. Seitz described it when talking about the work of Bridget Riley, is “an organization, or manipulation of various abstract qualities that bear no relationship to the physical world”. These complicated mosaics are visual sensations that reveal alternative ways of perception. They are deceptive and eye-shuttering.
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 14:19:12 +0000
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