Giorgos Kontis’ Solo Show ”Winter kept us warm” Brussels

Giorgos Kontis, graduate of the MFA AKV/St.Joost is having a solo show at EUROCONTROL in Brussels

EUROCONTROL Headquarters
Opening June 18th, 2014
Eurocontrol premises, Brussels

Visiting this exhibition requires a registration until the 13th of June

Press Release:

 

Let Gooooo – Middelburg NL

Giorgos Kontis, graduate of our master program, has a solo show at ruimte CAESUUR in Middelburg.

Opening : Saturday March 22nd at 16.00.                                                                         The exhibition will run until May 3rd, and it is curated by Just Quist.

teamCaesuur invites you at the opening of the exhibition of the painter Giorgos Kontis on Saturday March 22nd at 16.00. ”It is the first of a new series, in which we take an exhibition as a work in progress: we not only will show you the work of an artist in ruimteCaesuur, we also will let you witness the set-up of an exhibition, the way the artist is playing along with this space, the way the space itself has been established, and especially the way the work may take meaning in the artist’s hands in this space in front of the public, and to that we will appeal to your own imagination.We therefore will invite you during this exhibition to all sorts of activitites: a lecture, aperformance, a happening, a table-talk and so on.Fore this new series we’ve consigned everything to a curator, Just Quist, who too hasreshapen the space of ruimteCaesuuur in order to investigate the way meaning arises in a indefinite space by the interaction between artist, organizers, and public making visible the object of everybody’s imagination.”

Giorgos Kontis:

“I was delighted to receive the invitation by Just Quist to participate in the ‘Let Gooooo’ project. What came along with this invitation were firstly enthusiasm, based on the challenge of how to deal with the exhibit of my work, and secondly anxiety, because of the numerous ways that this could possibly take place and the need to invent and propose a more personal way. How do we deal with the ‘painted image’ and how and what the exhibition of it could be? Could it be a workshop or a form of exhibiting of the whole process that leads to the painted image, rather than plainly the display of the latter?  My work is focused on painting and I see painting as a process whose outcome is what I like to call the painted image. The use and function of the painted image have become central in my contemplation on painting. How can it be displayed and how does it radiate itself? And more specifically in abstract painting: does it bear a religious hue, does it function as an Icon?  Regarding the concerns of my art practice and by the occasion of Just’s invitation I decided to focus on the dialogue that can be created between my work and the beautiful space of Ruimte Caesuur. Though, my ambition is this dialogue to take a more substantial character and through it the viewer to have the chance of an insight into my work and the questionings that surround it.”  for more information :  http://giorgoskontis.com/   and  http://www.caesuur.nl/

Ab-stractions – Athens , Greece

Through the parallel adventures of their painting and sculpture, three visual artists explore the issue of modern-day Abstraction…

Participating Artists: Giorgos Kontis, Eleni Oikonomou. Artemis Papadima                  Curator : Iris Kritikou      

Giorgos Kontis is an ex-participant of the MFA AKV/ST.Joost                                                                         
Opening : Friday, January 17, 2014, 19:30    Duration:17/01/2014 -05/02/2014            Venue: Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas Gallery, Hellenic American Union

The language of abstraction is presented through the work of three young visual artists: Giorgos Kontis, Eleni Oikonomou and Artemis Papadima are all graduates of the Z’ Painting Laboratory of the Athens School of Fine Arts and students of Giannis Psychopaidis, whose suggestion served as the grounding concept for this exhibition. Minimalism, repeated archetypal motifs, clean forms and intense color are some of the elements that coexist in a fertile organic dialogue.

Through a minimalist script and the austere aesthetics of the absolute minimum, where the boldness of the gesture remains paramount, Giorgos Kontis defines fluent and flexible painting and animate fields. In Eleni Oikonomou’s archetypal sculptures, the cube as a unit is multiplied, added, subtracted, and divided, thus generating floor-based sculptural composites in space, while pursuing values such as the aesthetics of austerity, the clarity of lines and shapes, the order of measure, the intense impression and, above all, the hidden geometry. In response to a question about what it is that prompts her to paint, Artemis Papadima refers the spectator to the inner necessity of the soul for beauty, as Kandinsky would put it. The clean and specific form with the translucent, bold color, the concepts of texture and transparency often yearning for the intangible, the light and the dark with all their meanings and plausible readings, characterize her works.

Iris Kritikou is the curator of the exhibition.

During the exhibition, the artists shall be performing guided tours for visitors.

for more information : http://www.hau.gr/?i=culture.en.current_forth_events.3582

Palletical / W-O-L-K-E , Brussels

Giorgos Kontis, a former student of our program, is participating in the following exhibition.

18 Dec –  21 Dec 2013
W-O-L-K-E :  Vaartstraat 45 rue du Canal, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

The exhibition is built around the simple concept of storage. More precisely every participant will receive a pallet on/with which to work, also there will be a pallet-lifter to arrange and rearrange the pallets within the space.
The idea is to have a mobile exhibition where different compositions can be made during the course of the exhibition, by the participants and their visitors.

Participants:
Florence Aigner & Luca Moltmann, Carine Altermatt, David Bergé, Mathie Claeys & Annabelle Demey, Bridget Currie, Franziz Denyz, David De Buyser, Korneel Devillé, Britt Hatzius, Salome Schmuki & Theo Cowley, Giorgos Kontis, Gwendolyn Lootens, Ludovic Ledent, Hana Miletic, Koen Moerenhout, Clare Noonan, Berno Odo Polzer, Céline Prestavoine, Walt Van Beek, Sara van der Zande, Floris Verbeeck, Jan Verbruggen, Susanne Weck/Répondeur Automatik

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wolke/471392039591005

 

 

Authenticity in the Act of Painting

On Sunday the 1st of December there was an extensive programme with RijksakademieTALKS: lectures and discussions about topics put forward by the current residents. Jeannoux van Deijck is involved with the talk about Authenticity in the Act of Painting.

15.15- 16.00 | Authenticity in the Act of Painting
Round-table discussion about painting nowadays and the notion of authenticity in contemporary art. Conversation with art historian and critic Camiel van Winkel (advisor Rijksakademie), Giorgos Kontis (artist,writer on the subject matter) and resident artists. Resident artist Jeannoux van Deijck, initiator and organizer of the talk, will introduce the topic. The discussion will be moderated by Marleen Hartjes.

”The question of authenticity in painting leads to the notion of a hyper-individual artist, an author that is the dominant figure behind and upon the work.
In this way it is linked to the notion of an act -a process of making- that is individualized and cannot be alienated, a sense of an original, genuine creation that directly stems from and is connected to the maker.

Is the question on authenticity today a residue of the past, something that should have been cast away along with ‘the death of the author’? Or even further, up to which extend is the whole process of making linked to the notion of authorship, and how can both the making and the author be interpreted today? Is, in this regard, authenticity something that can still be questioned? ”