Through engravings and sculptural works, installations, and interventions on readymade objects, Evripidis Papadopetrakis, in his new solo exhibition at a.antonopoulou.art titled “Homeostatic Mechanisms,” outlines the experience of cosmic existence through the lens of visual perception and introspective process. In the “homeostatic mechanisms” of the artist, a playful and visually comprehensible balance predominates between image and word, the logical and the illogical, phenomenology and the neurophysiology of the brain.

Starting from the idea that the relationship between what we see and what we really know can never be stable, the artist employs the logic of probability, mixed forms, and suggestive images to highlight random or “predetermined” coincidences.

In Periodic Table, a monumental work, an entire world of multiple possibilities is summarized through a series of woodcuts with seemingly disparate images, which are nevertheless held together by invisible bonds, thus creating “selective affinities.” Nickel-plated three-dimensional sculptures reminiscent of model cards and works that bring the historical evolution of engraving to the present through its tools and materials comment on the automatisms of human behavior.

In Papadopetrakis’ work, the theoretical background and research on visual means of expression—with an emphasis on engraving—is constantly fed back into the interdisciplinary approach, specifically the relationship between the natural and human sciences and visual creation. The artist uses a mnemonic approach as a tool to raise questions about how we perceive, understand, and interact with the world around us. As Frances Yates characteristically states: “Before the invention of printing, trained memory was of vital importance, and the management of images in memory must have activated all mental functions to a certain extent.”

As art historian and curator Vicky Tsirou notes in the exhibition text: “In Papadopetrakis’ Homeostatic Mechanisms, nothing happens in a vacuum. The subtle yet meaningful connections that permeate the artist’s work are interconnected in a fundamental way. If homeostasis is a defensive mechanism for the human organism against changing external conditions that disrupt its natural balance, we can potentially argue that in the era of fluid modernity, where “social forms cannot maintain their shape for long, because they dissolve faster than the time it takes to form them,” Papadopetrakis’ work functions as a balancing and reflective force in the relationship between the self and the external environment.

SHORT BIO

Evripidis Papadopetrakis (born 1988) is a visual artist based in Athens. He studied engraving, book art, and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts and completed his master’s degree at the same school while also attending seminars on artistic bookbinding. His work revolves around classical and experimental printing methods and the construction of surrealist sculptures. His research and references are directly related to the sciences, both from an aesthetic point of view and as a commentary through unorthodox thinking based on the relationship between the logical and the metaphysical. In 2021, he held a solo exhibition entitled “Living Monuments” at the Mediterranean Architecture Center, and has participated in many group exhibitions, some of them as a curator. He has collaborated on artistic productions and has held workshops and lectures with organizations in Greece and abroad, while he has been a member and founder of artistic groups and artistic spaces. In 2023, he published the book BURR (Dolce Publications) together with Vicky Tsirou as part of the program of the same name. His works can be found in private and public collections.

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