Dimitris Kokoris

Cascade

20/10/22 – 26/11/22 Athens CURATED BY Maria Almpani TEXTS BY Eirini-Maria Nanouri

Cascade,
ink on paper
100 x 70 cm
2022

The ALMA gallery presents the visual artist Dimitris Kokoris, in his first solo exhibition, entitled Cascade. From October 20 to November 26, 2022, people interact with artworks that narrate the weird sense of the artists’ mellow experiences. Hybrid environments depicting natural landscapes being urbanized and correspondingly urbanized that are being disembodied, human figures being devastated by too much information - a vigorous commentary of our times, phallic and religious symbols - screams of social stereotypes, animals and mythical creatures in the form of cartoons, imprints of a distorted childhood, pestilence of the modern age.

City Vibes,
oil on canvas
150 x 150 cm
2021

Dreambirth,
ink on paper
30 x 40 cm
2022

The weird sense of the mellow experiences is the key element in the pictorial narrative that the visual artist, Dimitris Kokoris, presents in his first solo exhibition. Hybrid environments depicting natural landscapes being urbanized and correspondingly urbanized being disembodied, human figures being devastated by too much information - a vigorous commentary of our times, phallic and religious symbols - screams of social stereotypes, animals and mythical creatures in the form of cartoons, imprints of a distorted childhood, pestilence of the modern age. Dimitris is moved by memory. Using his fine nib, acrylic and oil colors, the artist draws without control, creating a huge multi-thematic ensemble that at first glance seems like an avalanche of images. A closer approach of each drawing separately is coming to surprise the spectator. There is no reference or preliminary sketch, the ink is poured directly onto the paper indicating the determination, confidence and ingenuity of the painter. Kokoris remains honest in the geometrical consciousness. His endless grids are always held together by underground linear and horizontal axes that create polyphonic ensembles not limited to the four corners of each painting, avoiding to impose on the viewer the end of the composition. Each work is a unique space dome that tries to communicate its space to the perceptual experience of the viewer . 1 Influenced by ethnological elements of other cultures, where the image is included directly in the communication code, continuously juggling between Western and Eastern ways of thinking, he endeavors to define his thoughts and articulate his desires figuratively. The artist does not paint in order to express himself. His foremost intention is to control the fear of loss, to relieve the material needs that have been instilled deep in society, to finally create a cascade of what he sees, thinks, observes, feels. In a way he collects his personal assets, which he uses to achieve the supreme need of human beings.

Folding Screen,
ink and watercolor on paper
20 x 200 cm
2022

Dimitris Kokoris was born in Athens in 1990. He graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2014. In 2011 he studied at the University of Granada in Spain under the Erasmus scholarship. In 2012, he did an internship in Scenography at one of the most significant stage production companies, Stage One Ltd, in England. In 2019, he studied at ISBI Bandung, in Indonesia, under a scholarship. He has participated in many group exhibitions and part of his artworks belong to the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, GLO Art residency in Belgium, as well as in private collections.

Communication. Eirini-Maria Nanouri, Art Curator Athens School of Fine Arts