Theofilos Katsipanos

Narratives

8 Mar – 24 May 2014 Trikala TEXT BY Yiannis Bolis View Catalogue

The new work of Theofilos Katsipanos attests to unique qualities – design, colour, synthetics - the language of drawing. By establishing a multiformity and resourcefulness, he creates an optical rhythm which gives way to individual elements, testifying to study, experimentation and acute observation. In the gap between fantasy and reality, in direct correlation to psychological circumstances, uncertain meaning and hidden truths are revealed as the artist narrates paradoxical stories, invoking an essential communication via a mysterious sanguine aesthetic and ambiguity. He presents a reflection of a world in crisis; a problematic world, crazed and malfunctioning; isolated, silenced and alienated; a theatre of human existence; a divided, trapped and wounded life.

Shells,
acrylics and oil on canvas,
50 x 70 cm

The realistic message, in combination with disfiguration, disproportion and arbitrary scale changes, plasticity of shape and volume, problematic and elliptical internal and external space, cartoon pop attitude, precision and acute design, logic and aesthetics, collage, purity, elaboration and tonality of colour, decisively contribute to the enigma of every synthesis. In turn this contributes to an atmosphere evocative of romantic lyricism, leading one, step by step to become submerged in the dominance of dreams, the archetypical conceptual space of dissatisfaction or the pressure of erotic desire, fear and delusion, paranoia, violence and the subconscious. The meaning of time runs throughout as an abstract expression of life itself, as a philosophical concept and symbolic reminder of mortality, vanity, decay and decadence.

Common Views,
acrylics and oil on canvas,
157 x 121 cm

The creations of Theofilos Katsipanos remain deeply rooted in humanity. This core of theme is approached in the form of multifarious movement, bearing an account rich in suggestion of intellectual dynamism. Forms structure an idiosyncratic geography of the body and more specifically the face, with a narcissistic adherence to its rendition, suggesting an immediate tactility of flesh, radiating energy and an intrinsic intensity carrying an emotional charge and metaphysical agony. The surrealistic juxtaposition and symbiotically incongruous motif broaden vision. The forms and relationships which interdevelop become the key to an iconographic code which leads one to a deeper levelled approach to understanding and interpretation. The art of Katsipanos presents the apocalypse, sometimes delirious, sometimes personal and confessional, others hermetic, introverted and impenetrable. The direction of the work and the ar- tistic realization emphasise intention, pose ontological questions and create art which echoes aspects of worldly contradiction, impressing coherent perseverance so morphological that on a thematic level, traces of an in- ternal journey to visually establish spiritual impressions, experiences and thoughts are scrutinised through the long process of maturing observation.