The Ileana Tounta Center for Contemporary Art presents Nikos Komiotis’s first solo exhibition, titled PLEASE BEHAVE. Having always taken the exploration of his primary medium—painting—as the starting point for his reflection and artistic quest, he has brought together a new series of works that simultaneously address humanity’s intertwined relationship with both the living and the material environments around it.

The title PLEASE BEHAVE functions as a seemingly polite, yet in reality authoritative call for compliance. The environment is not merely the framework within which people move, but an active mechanism that dictates behaviours, sets limits on possibilities and imposes rules. Space seems to precede the subjects and determine the way in which they can exist within it.

This feeling is conveyed to the viewer through the way Komiotis renders both the human figures in his works and their surrounding space. His color palette is dominated by a limited range of tones, moving between white, black, and shades of gray, with the presence of a single, subdued blue in the background. At the same time, the different textures, ranging from matte to glossy surfaces, operate almost scenographically within the composition, directing the viewer’s gaze and fragmenting space in an unnatural manner.

Another important element is the way in which the artist handles movement. The figures appear to have been isolated at a particular moment, as though a video has been paused. The image remains still, yet the positions of the bodies allow the viewer to imagine what preceded the depicted moment or what might follow. This creates a sense of awkwardness, as the figures seem to inhabit an empty space, detached from a larger, unknown narrative. His staged references draw from a diverse range of visual sources—from a choreography or a film to an album cover—where collective ritual and the disciplined movement of the body become almost a spectacle. The choice of a three-quarter point of view reinforces the sense that the figures constitute a spectacle and are being observed from a distance, placing the viewer in the position of an external, detached observer.

His figures, “dressed” in literal or metaphorical uniforms—such as workwear, but also suits—and absorbed in a task or activity, present the human being through their social role. The atmosphere of the works may evoke images from science-fiction films that envisioned strictly organized societies of the future, in which individuality gives way to the need for conformity. At the heart of the work, after all, lies the question of identity: the way in which the individual attempts to shape and express it, but also the way in which the environment and society can restrict that expression. Each individual occupies a different place within society, shaped by their social status and the role they are called upon to perform. In Komiotis’ painting, this difference is also translated into a difference in scale: the figures do not all carry the same weight or have the same presence within the space.

Additionally, the works carry a strong element of cynicism, which seems to be deposited there by the artist—or perhaps by the viewers too—thus turning them into commentators on the situation presented before them. People appear to be performing roles and following rules without it being clear who has established them or what purpose they serve. Komiotis’ painting places the viewer precisely within this ambiguous territory between individuality and conformity, movement and stillness, freedom and the rules that determine the environment in which we exist. PLEASE BEHAVE thus constructs a world in which space is not neutral, but operates as a system of boundaries within which the individual is called upon to live, to determine their place, and, most likely, to adapt.

Galini Lazani

September 2026