ALLOTRIA · Group Show · Alma Contemporary Art Gallery

ALLOTRIA ^*

Group Show

Or, the back side of things

26 July – 16 Aug 2019 Triantaros, Tinos CURATED BY Manos Stefanides PARTICIPANTS Christos Antonaropoulos ·
Haralabos Katsatsidis ·
Michalis Manousakis ·
Tassos Missouras ·
Panagiotis Tanimanidis

With the gracious consent of the owners, the exhibition ALLOTRIA is held at a marvelous country residence on the island of Tinos, ‘A touch of view’ / Vacation House ASPALATHOS The residence was designed by architect Aristidis Dallas and has to date been awarded with important distinctions.

Michalis Manousakis,
acrylics, charcoal
and woodcarving,
120 x 160 cm,
2014

The artist, the poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, the photographer, is not a creature different than the average person. Not superhuman, although s/he may be different. On the contrary. The artist is more thoroughly steeped in the average than the so called average person. Which is to say, in the human condition and frailty. The sculptor, the poet, the painter and so on, is continuously available and open to the difference, the exception, the miracle. Even more than that, in fact. The artist is on constant vigil for the miraculous. This is the notorious inspiration. The receptivity to that which exceeds us. To the supra-intelligent. To an alternative interpretation of things. Oftentimes, finally, art emerges out of that detail that seemed indifferent, even tedious, to the crowd. Which did not arouse or stimulate the many. Because before becoming insight, art was apprenticeship and toil and failure and concentration and vigil. Which is perhaps why the poet, being available, is always up through the night… In the present exhibition, in this special abode, this so very hospitable home, six artists from the same generation – quite new until recently, nowadays virtually classic! – explore through a sample of their work (one or two artworks only) what hides behind the images, what lies in wait on the invisible side of things. Is it enchantment, enigma, fear, eros, grief or merely the void which the very images leave behind when they are no longer of any use? Is it something ominous or something auspicious? All I know to say is that each work hides a world exclusively its own and does not readily lend itself to facile interpretations. And it is never exhausted in its ostensive aspect. It always, without exception, can be read differently as well. All I know is that Christos Antonaropoulos, Aggelos Antonopoulos, Babis Katsatsidis. Michalis Manousakis, Tassos Missouras and Panagiotis Tanimanidis have come here, to the island of Tinos, to surprise you not just with their sensitivity but mainly with their virtuosity and adeptness in lending a voice to the images. And having them speak outside the beaten track. Outside the convenient formulas of the mainstream. In the terms of a poetic discourse. Are you able to hear them?

Allotria was the name of the arts association in Munich of which a member was Nikolaos Gyzis, the timeless patron saint of Tinos and of Greek painting. ^