Panos Papadopoulos

Opening reception: Friday February 5, 8-10 p.m.

Eleni Koroneou Gallery is pleased to present “Narcissism-Masochism-Fetishism” with new work by Panos Papadopoulos in his first solo show at the gallery.

Panos Papadopoulos work is a mixture of conceptual, minimal, abstract and expressionist art. Departing from his earlier works – text-populated, noisy, post punk abstract oil paintings –, Papadopoulos here allows space to emerge, creating interiors and replacing the text with objects; yet the objects still hold on to their linguistic potency, often acting as symbols of language. It is the empty space, the sound of silence that adds tension to these objects. Basically, he turns drawings into paintings, leaving the viewer with the impression of the absent, the incomplete, the unfinished. Is their appearance deceiving; is there more than meets the eye?

“Often people ask me if my oil paintings are finished or why do they look so empty,” says the Athens-born painter. “My previous works of art were dense and intense; they had lots of layers and were full of text and information. So I started to abstract from the… abstract. I like to take advantage of the whiteness of the canvas in order to highlight the things that matter the most”. In his new works, he takes away the “noise” and a lot of other paint elements, in order to emphasize on the power of color and the brushstroke itself. “It is interesting to see how people react to minimal paintings, especially in a world were they are used to wanting more. But there is a lot of tense in the drawing and the color composition, you just have to look closer”, he explains.

The title of the exhibition “Narcissism-Masochism-Fetishism” is inspired by a collection of essays by Sigmund Freud. Those concepts are related to the thematic of the works and the process of their creation. The result is a series of interiors and urban environments, full of irony, humor and hidden meanings. The more you look at them, the more you see. White space does not necessary mean nothing; an empty space can produce strong presences and can create an effective impact on our senses. He provides an interesting counterpoint in his work by creating worlds bordering the real and the imagined, inspired from everyday life while his paintings function psychotherapeutically as a reflection on the personal experiences of the artist.

Panos Papadopoulos was born in 1975 in Athens. He lives and works in Athens and Vienna. In 2015, he was a resident at Hooper Projects art residency, Los Angeles. He is the co-founder of the art collective Dadada Academy, founded in 2009 in Vienna. He studied in the School of Fine Arts in Vienna (Prof. Marcus Prachensky) and was awarded the «Meisterschülerpreis» of the Academy. His artwork was represented in the 4th Athens Biennale in 2013 and has participated in numerous solo and group shows in Vienna, Athens, Paris, Berlin, New York, Leipzig, Cologne and elsewhere.