Kostis Velonis - Building the Stage

Omikron Gallery is delighted to announce the debut solo show at the gallery by renowned Greek artist Kostis Velonis, opening on Wednesday September 14th. Τhe exhibition Building the Stage takes place between September 15 until October 15.

Well established in Greece and abroad, the artist exhibits a selection of his new and older work for the first time in Cyprus. Some of his art may be interpreted as political comments criticising the Greek situation, but also the Cypriot reality.

In Building the Stage, Velonis attempts to exemplify the material culture of politics through a parallel presentation of the tradition of the artistic avant-garde and contemporary activist practices. His artworks are an amalgam of personal narratives and historical references.

In this exhibition the artist examines a symbolic action: stepping onto the political stage. The political stage is a prerequisite for the development of political discourse, whether this is about the deepening of democratic thought or even the violent imposition of power. The stage design provides a reading space of hierarchy and limitations. It is part of the architecture of the political spectacle, such as the amphitheatre and the stadium, where his artistic production derives from and which constitute a gathering place for the expression of political discourse.

His distinctive visual lexicon is eloquently expressed through sculptures, installations, photographic slides and drawings. For the making of his abstract sculptures Velonis uses simple, everyday, unimportant materials, such as pieces of wood. "In some of my artworks co-exist materials which I find in the street and this offers me the sensation of the direct and the real." he states. The artist transfers the contradictions that arise in managing the construction of the political "stage" on modules or symbolical spaces, in smaller and larger scales, through sculptures, installations and photographic slides.

Kostis Velonis has presented his work in solo and group shows in Greece and abroad. Previous solo exhibitions include Loneliness on Common Ground: How Can Society Do What Each Person Dreams, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, 2010, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg, 2009, Revolution Essentielle, Academy of Fine Arts, Sarajevo, 2008, …was einmal uber heute gesagt werden wird: KolnShow2, European Kunsthalle, Cologne, 2007.

Selected group shows include the recent Nτέρτι Humanism, at Faggionato Fine Art Gallery, London, The Marathon Marathon project, at Deste Foundation, Athens, 2010 and Politics of Art, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, in 2009 he took part in the 2nd Athens Biennial. Two forthcoming shows he is taking part in towards the end of this year are Melanchotopia, at Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam and the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, with A Rock And a Hard Place, at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki.

Private view: September 14th 2011, 20:00

Opening Hours
Monday to Friday: 10:00-13:00 & 16:00-20:00
Saturday: 10:00-14:00.