Beast on a Diet
The worn-out cliché "add some color to your life” comes in as a handy solution when the uneasiness of daily mishaps and disappointments is being sought. According to David Batchelor, in western imagination colour holds an ambiguous position, a key that opens the world and a barrier to understand it. In everyday life, declarations about our love or abhorrence to color is a casual, nonchalant act that simply happens. Colour is associated with fashion, personal obsessions, dreams, desires, ethics or emotions.
One could question whether western civilization nurtures a tank of purified, elevated and quintessential color shades. One could also wonder if the ubiquitous black, white and greys are acknowledged as a visual and cultural catharsis while the display of vivid color stands out in comparison as an unstable eccentricity, an irrational affront. The color: an elusive monster, «the most relative medium in art» according to Albers. He, of all, should know best. Most artists, being specialists on the subject would nod with understanding. Attitudes though may vary. Some of them subdue its part within their visual systems while others build their work around it.
The exhibition Beast on a diet reexamines the dynamic usage of colour as an optical element and a conceptual tool. It takes into consideration how artists react in building their own color manuals whilst aware of the undercurrent meanings and uses of color. The artistic choices in the exhibition span from the neutral black and whites of graphite to vibrant, irritating hues to set up an array of self-imposed color restrictions. These affect the aesthetic claim of each work but more importantly stretch far beyond the open surface to arrange a plane where color is culturally and emotionally negotiated. In the color saturated or chromatically flattened environments of the exhibition one can experience the areas where color and new meaning meet and melt together.
Curated by: Nina Kotamanidou, Eleftheria Alexandri
Artists: Vangelis Agnantopoulos, Eleftheria Alexandri, Stavros Valkanis, Andromachi Giannopoulou, Patricia-Eugenia Deliyannis, Tati Douvana, Eleni Glinou, Nina Kotamanidou, Chryssa Lambracopoulou, Dorina Malliou, Mouzakitou, Michail Parlamas, Christos Ponis, Gm Touliatou, Vassilis Fiorentzakis.
Back to Athens 7, 2020
μetaΑθήνα / pόστΑθενς
Overcoming crises, Athens on the verge of its new identity
2nd floor
48-50 Aiolou str., 105 60 Athens
Opening day: Wednesday, July 1, 16:00 -22:00
Visiting hours: Thursday 2.7, Friday 3.7, 16:00 – 21:00, Saturday 4.7, 12:00 – 21:00
