ΔΛ Gallery presents on Friday 11 October 2024 the solo exhibition of Yannis Christakos entitled “In the Crack of Space“.
Coded autobiographical maps, full of details, symbols, surreal metamorphoses, visual metaphors, allegories. The works of Yannis Christakos invite the visitor to wander through the labyrinthine paths of his personal universe. To explore them and get lost in them. To feel the magic of the unknown and adventure in a fluid world that is constantly transforming socially, politically, geophysically.
These are visual maps that interweave real and realistic elements in a harmonious result. Paintings that resemble aerial photographs, evoking real places. They use recognizable cartographic codes. Their precision and technical skill deliberately misleads and disorientates viewers.
Like professional maps, Christakos’ works record metropolises, cities and villages; rivers, lakes, valleys, mountain ranges, mountains; complex urban road networks, regional country roads, railway lines. Similar images from the objective world are stacked on his mobile phone for immediate use. They are a source of inspiration and an object of study. Material to dream, think and process. Like the elements of nature he obsessively collects.
The infinite ramifications of the lines spread like cobwebs across the surface. They capture notes of a life rich in experiences and journeys, structuring the encrypted narrative with minimal expressive means. In addition to pencils, the artist utilizes resins with which he coats parts of the works, giving them a transparent volume and matte finish. The liquid glass, in solidified form, sharp in places, functions symbolically as an indirect commentary on the destruction of the environment.
Using a very fine brush and with repeated movements as if he were embroidering or sewing, Christakos also solidifies oil paints. He uses them to compose three-dimensional lines that create the illusion of being unaltered, pasted colored threads and threads, fooling even the most experienced eye. Morphologically and conceptually they allude to “acid” raindrops, scratches and abrasions, seams and patches.
With a stationmaster father and a seamstress mother – in his studio in his mother’s former sewing workshop, a space steeped in memories – Christakos creates geographical maps that are reminiscent of both elaborate lace and intricate embroidery. He converses with his past while experiencing the present and envisioning the future. His imaginary landscapes, in addition to guiding viewers along self-reflexive paths, comment on subliminally hot and pertinent issues: the climate crisis, the devastating effects of war, wounded cities, the demise of states, involuntary displacement, forced uprooting, the fluidity of existence and situations.
Οpening Night: Friday 11 October 2024 at 20:30 -23:30
Exhibition Duration: 11 October 2024 till 22 February 2025
Opening Hours: Thursday– Friday 12:00-19:30
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