KORNELIOS GRAMMENOS // REPATRIATION VOL. 2 //

March 13 – May 5 2018
KORNELIOS GRAMMENOS // REPATRIATION VOL. 2 //

The Yianna Grammatopoulou Gallery presents Kornelios Grammenos: Repatriation Vol. 2, the second phase of the artist's sculpturalinvestigationsinto the notion of return first revealed at the gallery in the exhibition entitled Repatriation Vol. 1 in 2017.

While Repatriation Vol. 1 charted reveries of home and the familiar, Vol. 2 concretizes a personal journey with a scrutiny of the external. Grammenos wields wood, paint, marble and iron to capture and convey the impulses that propel his universal perceptions. The artist uses the term "shadow body" to signify the force that channels and protects the essence of his creationsand furnishes the facility for apprehension. Grammenos states:“If the aim of art was and maybe still is the broadening of our consciousness about the cosmos then it would be good if the work of art, along with other qualities, is direct and easy to decipher, so that a link is created between the artist and the viewer – or in some cases not, which is also significant.”

The sculptures embody the aphorism, "Verum ess ipsum factum" (What is true is precisely what is made).

Beyond mere depiction, Grammenos aims to tender the essential being of his subjects symbolically through the meticulous arrangement of the details of the formal body. Sculpture and painting are united in a single entity:The cathedral, the philosopher, the dog. A unique environment is sustained through the disciplined and supple construction.  Color is deployed as a structural device, energizing the composition and accentuating the harmony of the whole.  For example: Nirvana imparts serenity and balance via the symmetrical juxtaposition of white and black marble. Each sculpture specifically, and the entire exhibit synergistically,realize the nexus between memory, history and the imagination and the concrete intentions of the artist. The internal and external rituals that define and constitute conceptions of place and homeland are immaculately rendered in the achievement of the repatriation of the world.

Niki Papaspyrou, Art Historian

February 2018

Works

View the embedded image gallery online at:
http://ekfrasi-art.gr/main/index.php/en/exhibitions/current-exhibition#sigProId1a962de730

Artist CV

Kornelios Grammenos was born in Patras, Greece in 1959. He studied graphic arts and photography in Athens, 1977-1980, and sculpture and painting at the Cologne School of Fine Arts (Kölner Werkkunstschule, Meisterklasse), Cologne, Germany, 1981-1988. A lifetime of international residencies includes Rome, Italy 1988-1991; New York City, 1991-1992; and San Francisco, California, 1999-2000. His career comprises major exhibitions of all aspects of his oeuvre in a wide variety of locations throughout Germany, Greece, Italy, Turkey and the United States. Presentations of his sculptural inventions have appeared in places as diverse as Palazzo Corvaja, Taormina, Sicily, 1990; Dexameni Square, Athens, Greece, 1995; the Marina of Patras, Greece,1996; the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 1997; and the 10th Public Elementary School, Vyronas, Athens, 2006. Solo shows include: The Goethe Institute, Athens, 1987; The Goethe Institute, Thessaloniki, 1998; the Nica Gallery Inc, San Francisco, California, 2000; the Galerie Beyer, Dresden, Germany, 2009; and the Yianna Grammatopoulos Gallery, Athens, Greece, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017 and 2018.He currently lives and works in Athens, Greece.

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