The art gallery ekfrasi – yianna grammatopoulou is about to present a group of new works by Giorgos Divaris under the title Arrogance, view from above.

Giorgos Divaris’ compositions form a distinct installation-proposal. They are mainly wall works and photographic prints on metal surfaces, in which various objets trouvés are often integrated: worn objects or amorphous masses of burned, destroyed and eventually undetermined objects, pieces of useless software and computer components…

Υπεροψία, 2006, τμήμα εγκατάστασης, δίπτυχη σύνθεση, λαμαρίνα, ψηφιακή εκτύπωση, οθόνη σε λειτουργία, τμήμα κατεστραμμένου ψυγείου, 60 x 150 εκ. / Arrogance, 2006, installation part, two-part composition, sheet metal, digital printing, screen in operation, damaged refrigerator part, 60 x 150 cm

“The central thematic core of his work in recent years is mainly the world of mass media, especially television news – the virtual and fabricated representations of reality that are promoted and reproduced by these media, while the viewers, staying at a distance and protected within the safety of their home environment, are becoming uninvolved, apathetic, and addicted observers-“consumers” of a specific, distorted version of the world. A version that, through unconnected images and descriptions, consciously projects the immaterial and conceals the essential.”, notices the art historian and the curator of the exhibition, Yiannis Bolis.

About Giorgos Divaris

George Divaris was born in São Paulo, Brazil (1956). He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1984-89) and continued his studies at the School of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the postgraduate program “Art and Philosophy”. He is a visual artist and professor at the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1990-2023). He teaches at the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Program “Art and Public Sphere” of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2018 to date). From 2015 to 2022, he was a member of the Board of Administration of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, which, during the same period, evolved into the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus). He was also a member of the Administrative Committee of the Hellenic Open University (2015-19).

Ουρανός, 2013, λαμαρίνα, ψηφιακή εκτύπωση, λιωμένο βιομηχανικό πλαστικό, 94 x 122 εκ. / Sky, 2013, sheet metal, digital printing, molten industrial plastic, 94 x 122 cm

His works, since 2006, focus on the concept of arrogance as well as on images taken from the mass media. He has presented his work in six solo exhibitions in Athens and Thessaloniki and participated with installations of his in the exhibitions: Praxis, Art in Times of Uncertainty (in the framework of the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2009) and The Memory of the Revolution-Greek Contemporary Artists-100 years after the October Revolution (“Nikos Kessanlis” Exhibition Hall, Athens School of Fine Arts, 2018). He has also participated in numerous group shows.

Works of his included in the collections of the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum, MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art-Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections, as well as in other public and private collections.