In his second solo show at CAN gallery and immediately
following his recent show in Vienna entitled "An Artist Without a
Concept is like a Traveller Without a Roadmap", Stelios
Karamanolis continues his preoccupation with history and dystopia
through a series of paintings with obvious references to
historical groups like "Die Bruecke" and "Der Blaue Reiter" and
great contemporaries such as Marlene Dumas and Peter Doig.
Very much in the fashion of the German Expressionists many
years earlier, Karamanolis moves away from the representation of
reality and turns towards the world of thought and emotion in an
attempt to penetrate some of the darkest folds of the human soul.
Uneasy and powerful, his brushstrokes express a series of internal
searches, and mental anxieties that become evident through
aggressive forms, violent strokes and vivid colors (red, green,
brown) that were completely absent from his painting the last few
years. His attention focuses on man and his often complex,
troubled inner world and is illustrated in his subjects in the
form of a very expressionistic style of painting of distorted
faces and bodies.
Human drama, alienation and loneliness are reflected through
simplified forms, graphic intensity and often powerful,
unrealistic colors. At the same time he pervades his subjects with
a blend of humor and joyful anarchy. Occasionally a match-like man
is standing next to a lumberjack and at other works, that same
match carries a haversack over his shoulder and takes a walk in
the woods. His narrative moves from the realm of real into the
realm of the imaginary and often terrible and/or as a portrait/
metaphor of the states of human mind.
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