Benoit Paré presents a new series of works inspired by Spetses and the other islands of the Saronic Gulf in his new exhibition opening on 2 September at Kapopoulos Fine Arts gallery in Spetses, with which he has an exclusive collaboration.
Works full of colour in pop art moods, which capture the spirit, the atmosphere and the air of the islands of the Saronic Gulf, Aegina, Hydra, but also Sounion and especially Spetses, where the exhibition is hosted. Typical corners, with the little harbours, the alleys, the boats, the famous Poseidonio trademark of Spetses, in an interestingly different, comic version.
“My motivation for choosing the subjects is, as the artist himself says, my admiration for the beauty of these places, the islands of the Saronic Gulf, where the Greek light is celebrated, in an attempt to render them in my own characteristic style, with bright, cheerful, flat colours, delineated with black outlines, in a clean drawing inspired by the classic comics of the Belgian school.”
Therefore, it is no coincidence that the most famous hero of this school, Ten Ten, together with his little dog Milou and the other well-known comic characters, peacefully “invade” Benoit Paré’s work and visit the Poseidonio, in the works dedicated to the famous hotel of Spetses, to live new adventures.
“I grew up with comic book culture and when I got involved in painting, of which I studied many forms, I wanted to incorporate it into my work,” says Benoit Paré. “My aim is to combine painting and comics through the aesthetics of pop art, which has expressed many artists to this day since the 1960s, which happens to be the decade of my childhood. I am very interested in keeping alive the child in me, the freshness and the desire for constant exploration and discovery.”
We should note that the works in this exhibition are a continuation of the exhibition that was held at the Kapopoulos Fine Arts gallery in Paros in 2019, where Benoit Paré presented a similar series of works with a pop art mood, inspired at the time by landscapes of the Aegean islands.
Benoit Paré has been in Greece since 1986. He graduated from ASFA in 1992. “I acquired Greek nationality and I can say that today I feel more Greek (60%) than French (40%)”, says the artist, who works as a secondary school teacher for the Greek public sector at the secondary school of the Agia Sophia Children’s Hospital for the children who are hospitalised.
A few words about Benoit Paré
He was born in Paris in 1961. In 1986 he moved to Greece where he still lives and works. After studying in Paris at the deCergy-Pontoise, Vald’Oise School of Fine Arts, he enriched his knowledge of the visual arts through travels in Europe and North America. He then studied painting under the supervision of Nikos Kessanlis at the School of Fine Arts (1987-1992) from which he graduated achieving the highest grade of Athens 30/30. Apart from painting, he has worked in mural painting, Byzantine art, graphic arts, scenography, portraiture, advertising and illustration (books, magazines, newspapers and the Internet). Since 1998 he has been appointed art teacher in secondary education and teaches in a high school in Athens to children at the Children’s Hospital. As a painter he has twelve solo exhibitions in Greece and Paris. He has also participated in group exhibitions in Greece, France, Belgium, Germany, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and the USA.
Opening of the exhibition: 2 September 2022, 20:00-01:00.
Exhibition duration: until 11 September 2022.
Kapopoulos Fine Arts Spetses Gallery,
www.kapopoulosart.gr
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