Zoumboulakis Galleries present the fourth solo exhibition of Kostas Christopoulos titled
“Flashbang” on Friday, March 17, 2023. The exhibition presents a part of Christopoulos’
extended research, including paintings, sculptures, and mixed media works, based on
photographic snapshots.
“Flashbang” explores the limits of matter, the relationship with memory, the subjectivity of
the gaze, and the embodied presence within the present time. The works focus on the
mechanisms of constructing historical memory and, ultimately knowledge, with the aim to
question what we typically adopt as self-evident and given. The overlapping references
function in a similar way, activating new perspectives of contemplating the familiar.
Christopoulos’ large-scale canvases delve into the uncharted landscape of politically
charged islands of Greece, in dialogue with fragmentary narratives of recent world history,
as captured in slogans written on banners.
In his painting, Christopoulos persists to a black and white palette. The tonal scale gives the
illusion of digital manipulation. The fluid balance among socio-political tensions, as
manifested in mass marches and collective demands, is reflected in the way he lays the oil
on canvas, creating a bidirectional relationship between his thematic references and his
painterly textures and qualities. Awkward facades of newly constructed buildings that
compose the urban reality, inscriptions of petitions and waterless streams in places of exile,
trigger a series of connections with contradictory associations.
The materiality of the works intertwines with the political narratives creating a common
ground for all the divergent elements of the exhibition. Focusing on the symbolic and
material economy, Christopoulos etches the word “justice” on a tin container of olive oil. The
apparent natural processes of corrosion and oxidation of the metal stand as a painterly
“material” that carries strong narrative power. Images of clashes at demonstrations, coated
with a thin layer of wax, evoke memories of ‘flammable’ negotiations, while two wooden,
shredded bays of agglomerated parquet revisit issues of neo-Greek narratives.
The exhibition “Flashbang” highlights a universe of signifiers that invoke the viewer’s
reflexes, leaving room for contemplation on issues concerning the interconnected
relationship between landscape and history.
8.3.23 G.L.
Short bio:
Kostas Christopoulos (born in 1976) is a visual artist. Since 2018 he is Assistant Professor at the Athens
School of Fine Arts. He studied painting and printmaking in the Athens School of Fine Arts and he followed
a Master Course in Visual Arts in the same School. He concluded his Ph.D. in the School of Political
Sciences, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has
four solo shows in Greece (“bingo”, 2006, “the room”, 2010, “Y.ST.RD”, 2016, all in Zoumboulakis Gallery)
and participated in various group shows in Greece and abroad. He is the writer of the book The
Ethnocentric Discourse in Modern Greek Art (in Greek, Asini editions, 2022). He is writing book and art
reviews for Greek newspapers, journals, and magazines and is the author of many essays in collective
books and art catalogs. He has curated and co-curated group and solo exhibitions. The exhibition
“Flashbang” is his fourth solo exhibition at Zoumboulakis Galleries.