On Wednesday 04 December, from 18:00 to 21:00, the fifth solo exhibition of Dimitris Foutris will be inaugurated at the Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre.

The exhibition will run until 25 January 2025.

The exhibition Inverted Frame: Landscapes Beyond Form focuses on the interplay between architecture and nature, drawing on visual elements and structural principles from Byzantine iconography and traditional Japanese art to examine the fragile balance between human intervention and the natural world.

Foutris’ works draw inspiration from the elements of the natural environment such as mountains, clouds and landscapes in general, which have a special place in both Byzantine and Japanese art. His compositions are dominated by emblematic architectural elements – walls, frames and layered spaces – allowing viewers to experience nature both as presence and abstraction. Through these motifs, the artist forms a dialogue that touches on the constant tension and harmony between the constructed forms of the human/manufactured environment and the organic world.

At the heart of Foutris’ works is the concept of ‘inverted perspective’, a key characteristic of Byzantine art, in which architectural and natural elements seem to be turned out of the work, towards the viewer, rather than converging towards the horizon, in contrast to the conventional linear perspective. At the same time, the “upside-down” perspective also refers to the interior of the work, directing the viewer’s gaze to points in the composition where emphasis needs to be placed on elements or characters being represented, thus cultivating a dynamic sense of spatial interaction.

Similarly, in the case of traditional Japanese painting, depth is implied through flat surfaces of colour and strong contours, strong shapes and patterns, extended backgrounds with often asymmetrical placements between figure and space, rather than through shadows or vanishing points. By combining and reinterpreting these techniques, Foutris creates works that ‘test’ the viewer’s given spatial perception, pushing the boundaries of how we experience the two-dimensional values of the painted surface.

The exhibition combines these two historically rich traditions, which, despite their cultural and temporal distance, share similar approaches to the representation of space, rejecting the Western emphasis on perspective and realism, and opting for a more symbolic and flat representation. Foutris draws on these traditions to explore in his own way the fragile nature of ecosystems, suggesting that our depiction of nature also reflects our perception of it in everyday life. Furthermore, in this series of works, he uses traditional materials – such as ink, watercolour, pencil and carbon on handmade paper, honouring both traditional techniques and the need for sustainable, environmentally friendly materials.

Dimitris Foutris’s personal webpage: http://www.dimitrisfoutris.info

Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre (Armatolon and Klefton 48, Athens 11471)

tel:+30 210 6439466 / fax:+30 210 6442852 / www.art-tounta.gr