In his exhibition in ALMA Art Gallery (Ipsilantou 24 St. in Kolonaki), Kostas Lavdas suggests that we take lessons in Home Economics. Starting with the byzantine way of expression, the street art aesthetics, and the pop culture, he presents compositions that refer to the contemporary convention. Through his large dimensional painting suggestions he is led to particularly expressive results, with a modern, dynamic, resourceful and original writing.

Anorexia or the Lord
is going to spit
the lukewarm out
of His mouth,
acrylics and pencils
on canvas,
295 x 196 cm, 2016

The plasticity of shapes and masses, the accuracy and sharpness of drawing, the game of associations, the disfigurements, the reversal of scales and sizes, the grotesque element, the elliptic and problematic spaces, the scenography perception, the unexpected encounters and combinations, the purity, the processing, the shine and tonality of colors (and , sometimes, the explosion of gesture with the throwing of the color on canvas and the creation of abstract spots), contribute decisively to the evocative and peculiar atmosphere.

Black Hole,
acrylics on canvas,
188 x 90 cm, 2016

The exact same feeling and atmosphere are prevalent in his drawings. A familiar and at the same time unfamiliar world of figures emerges and imposes itself, a world that is “open” to readings and references, an unexpectedly charged and turbulent theatre of the human life on the verge of the normal and abnormal, reality and fantasy. In his compositions he focuses on desires and experiences, interpersonal relations and behaviours that bear direct relation to sentimental and psychological situations.

Let them turn back
because of their shame
who say ‘Aha Aha’,
acrylics and pencils
on canvas,
170 x 190 cm, 2016

He has come to “narrate” imaginative and troublesome stories, to elevate in a timely and penetrating way stereotypical roles, symbols and identities. The daily life, the shell and shelter of the home , the protected hearth may hide secrets and lies under the surface of a serene and ideal life , condensing the hostility, incongruity, the nightmarish alienation and loneliness of the human existence, the divisions and malfunctions, the apparent and inner anxieties and insecurities –all these that the creator himself feels and experiences beyond the visible and conventional, for all those fears, the dreams and illusions of the childhood, the ghosts and complexes, the traps, the remorse and the traumas of the adult life.

Selfie,
acrylics on canvas,
100 x 100 cm, 2016

At the same time, in some of his compositions the element of love plays a main role, while the element that runs through his work is the catalytic, obvious or subcutaneous humor, the critical dimension, the subversive approach of his topics but also the sensitive affectionate look. The daily microcosm of Lavdas’ works is there waiting for the audience to explore and identify with inviting them to home economics lessons that although they might seem simple they are complex, ambivalent and probably “dangerous”.

She came from the sky,
egg tempera acrylics
and pencils on canvas,
188 x 188 cm, 2016

Tik Tak,
egg tempera acrylics
and pencils on wood,
105 x 80 cm, 2016

The coward predator,
acrylics on canvas,
188 x 188 cm, 2016