ARTIST STATEMENT
EXHIBITION HISTORY
GALLERIES
MY FAVORITES


Artist Statement -



‘Alcohol 2009-2010’
Catalogue 10/2010 ATHENS

Wishing to interpret a work of art through a written text is undoubtedly a difficult task and I often wonder whether it is even necessary.
A multitude of pages are written every day all over the world with the purpose of explaining the existence, necessity and worth of various instances of artistic expression. In and of itself, this may trick the writer into stating points of view that grow out of the tendencies of a particular era, out of a stagnant aesthetic, out of people who say one thing and do another and, through this process, give a nod of approval to an “ego” that is adventitious, selfish, and falsely illustrated, while they forget that the approach to art requires poise, profound knowledge, simplicity and honesty.
Considering the speed with which, in the past few years, legions of artists have surfaced, the parameter that is used to measure the art trade as carried out by certain people who view their artistic work as shares in a unique yet nonetheless effective stock market, and whose sole purpose is financial gain, is an actual fact and, as far as many are concerned, lawful in a free society of adults.
Given that this type of trade is based on the artist’s renown, which at certain points and periods in time can procure great financial gains, prestige and access to a social and intellectual elite which is both interdependent and adulating, I wonder how important a superficial immersion in popular culture and the yearning to make money has become among those who frequent and participate in the art trade.
These people are, above all, those artists who are dazzled at the sight of money and of their – in my opinion short-lived – view of themselves as cultural leaders. From the moment they put a price on their work, I consider them merchants.
Then there are the gallery owners, many of whom love not art but the artists that make them a profit, and, lastly, there are those curators and critics who, with a smattering of what we call instruction, quickly and frivolously put forward in general interest or fashion magazines their thoughts consisting of contradictory, incomprehensible and inane statements, thus bringing together an audience that begins to resemble them, even in their outer appearance.
I am very familiar with Vassilis Karakatsanis’s trajectory. He belongs to the generation of artists who grew up and began to create in the transitional decade of the eighties. His painting, displaying awareness and continuity, is the product of a personal, independent artistic investigation that bears the characteristics I mentioned earlier: profound knowledge, simplicity and honesty. And I witness this in the assimilation of his influences which, starting off from an existing reality, become his own personal proposals, through a subject matter that brings to mind the successive scenes of a theatrical play; totally anthropocentric, serene, and processed artistically in a manner that is lucid, simple, and marked by delicate sensibilities.
During all these years he has been painting, it seems to me as if he is paying attention to that which is our life in order to reproduce it from a certain distance, the challenge here being his full participation in everyday events – his complicity with them, I’d say.
Vassilis reminds me of a child, smiling mischievously as he gleefully and amusingly tells his parents about the trick his classmates played on their teacher at school, taking care not to mention that he was in fact one of them.
Looking at the vital element of the themes that Karakatsanis chooses, it is clear that he is recreating a fetishistic relationship with life that unfolds within the urban landscape.
(Bags 1985, Artio Gallery, Athens) (Cities 1985, Galer&<237;a Juan Oliver Maneu, Palma de Mallorca) (Houses 1, 1988, Galerie Gisela Bolhagen, Bremen and Galerie Meissner, Hamburg) (Clothes 1990, To Trito Mati, Athens and Galleria Fontanella Borghese, Rome) (Carpets 1991, Titanium Art Gallery, Athens) (Flags 1992, Vicky Dracos Contemporary Art, Athens & Gloria Gallery, Nicosia) (Party 1995/1996, Kreonidis Art Galleries, Athens & Thessaloniki) (Sarong 1997/1998, Espace Kreonidis, Athens) (Urban Materials 2005, Zita-Mi Gallery, Thessaloniki & Astrolavos Art Galleries, Athens) (Urban Behaviours 2007/2008, ekfrasi-yianna grammatopoulou, Athens & Morfi Gallery, Limassol) y (Alcohol 2009/2010, ekfrasi-yianna grammatopoulou, Athens).
In his latest work, which is entitled “Alcohol” and consists of the representation of specific drinks, as a pretext for the representation and structuring of the forms of the glasses – which, for those who are familiar with the night and who experience it in a particular way, is the essence and the formula of a special, often painful relationship – Vassilis borrows elements from the language of advertising, television, and billboards, with which, free of prejudice or pseudomoral taboos, he registers the eroticism, always within an urban environment, or, more plainly, the sex; the social relations; the passions; the morality and, why not, the pervesion – the way I see it. The personality of the protagonists in this imaginary bar is false and hypocritical, until they arrive at what they’re after, which is none other than the sexual act as liberation.
Clarity in the use of the coloured surfaces, lucidity and assurance in what he does and his undeniably explicit style result in a contemporary realism with touches of his own personal aesthetics.
Vassilis Karakatsanis succeeds in placing the spectators on the stage and the actors in the stalls. Using as his material the well-known aptitude for learning of our western culture, he raises mirrors that register, in all its crudeness, our solitude, our suffering and our penury.
In art, having something to say is a given; it’s being able to say it that’s difficult.
Karakatsanis speaks to us in the best way possible and that is because he himself moves cunningly between the stage and the stalls.
January 2010, Rogelio Araujo
Director of the “Can Prunera” Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art in the City of Soller (Mallorca, Spain)

‘Urban Behaviours’ > ‘ÁóôéêÝò ÓõìðåñéöïñÝò’
‘Comportamientos Urbanos’ 2007/2008
Catalogue 2/2008 ATHENS

Behaviours are defined and formed within the time they occur as well as the cultural, political and “arbitrary” conjunctures of our developing civilization. Accepted or not, depending on the longitude and latitude they appear, the material of their clothing, the accent of the protagonists or the social codes, they never fail to reflect the individuals and define class, roles, values and missions, ethical or unethical, in our virtually “Roman” society.

Karakatsanis approaches this reality in an unadorned, straightforward and caustic manner. Vanity, carnalism and mixing of values reflect in the eyes and the bodies of the assembled people who constitute the body of his work whereas the repeated presence of the chair refers to the urban environment.
His subject matter is realization, deadlock and hypocrisy, with which, without any trace of intellectualism, he expresses his anguish using very few materials. He does not suggest a solution, yet he demonstrates a mirror in which we can all see our real self or our innermost fantasies, if we so wish.

The middle class, particularly that of the western world, has led people’s perspective towards a comfortable life, aesthetically more decent and possibly happier, even though more often than not it has been deservedly attacked by the have-nots, unfortunately, in their majority, without having political views or providing an essential counter-proposal for the social model they would like to live.

This is apparent in most of the cases that whenever the domination of “progressiveness” has prevailed over conservatism and the reversal of distinguishing people through the primary inequalities of bourgeoisie lifestyle and way of thinking, the thrill and hope that it has brought towards a society of equal and adaptable citizens, far from the clich&<233;s of urbanism, has resulted through enrichment and gaining power in the reproduction of all bourgeois “evils” in a most inelegant manner.
As if most of them were eventually dreaming of a living room with a chandelier, money and a very expensive shining car even in neighbourhoods with dirt roads as confirmation of their raison d’&<234;tre.

Karakatsanis risks his involvement in a socio-political debate. However, painting and art in general has to create aesthetic parameters both from its own material and from the “thesis” of identification of its content.

Karakatsanis’s artistic integrity encourages the discussion between the viewer and the work or even better between the viewer and the viewer.

In times that values, culture and meritocracy are unconventional terms to reality, particularly within societies that are exploring their developmental pace, after the change of their standard of living, art might be one of the few areas that through “beauty” the shape of our flaws can be projected, an area in which Karakatsanis is utterly successful.

Jaume Mir, Palma de Mallorca, 2/2008
President of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Mallorca



By PEDRO A. SERRA y BAUZA

Motifs, textures and qualities, develop on the canvas, like armchairs, clothes, umbrellas, carpets. Almost always clothing materials.

Materials of urban concept, undoubtedly controversial with specific reasoning in the past, however subconsciously desired by so many.

Clothing materials that define someone’s class, undoubtedly bring up scepticism concerning the power of our stage-designing and clothing conclusions with a deadline through the passage of time. At the same time, they raise doubts concerning the value of many controversies within the dream for a society more substantial and more just.

Our primitivism, our relation to matter and, all the more, to its particular expressions, will contribute in a way that, in addition to the awe, the smile will have to be often included, I’m afraid, in the conclusions of future scholars about man.
Experienced space, time and materials mingle in such a way that on the one hand we have the given visual product and on the other hand the critical, universal approach to human existence with discreet irony, I would say, through its passions and consumer necessities.

Karakatsanis speaks about something he knows very well, trying to keep the balance between the description and the conceptual disposition to put forward views about the urban landscape.
Once more, he reflects an experiential relationship with what he embarks on, code messages in a diary, views, queries, secret or unconcealed fetishes.

It is a humanistic approach, with the human figure missing, like in most of the series in the past, as it is the target itself (cities 1985), (bags 1986), (imprints 1987), (clothes 1989), (houses 1989), (carpets 1991), (flags 1992), (Vathis sq. 2001), (on wall 2003), (G8+? 2003), (netting 2004).
The human figure complementary appears on canvas and is illustrated more, I would say, in the series (party 1996) and (sarong 1998).

Karakatsanis implies and does so in a straightforward way. Thus he engages the viewer in a second and third evaluation of his work, taking risks, with the hasty conclusions entertained by the “syndrome” of the meaning or the fast and superficial choice of familiar, stereotyped, post-modern titles.
The painter here, and I hope in the future too, does not drift into brashness or loud statements that will possibly be quickly revised tomorrow. He avoids in a refined and responsible way, his affiliation to the “devoted” obsession with putting forward questions and conclusions that, I’m afraid, do not interest people, who will eventually appreciate the project and are the source of inspiration.

Identifiable and plain artistic monochrome expression that permeates the canvas, stage designing in the form of “installation of two dimensions” and clear elements of new realism and pop.
The visual product is optimistic, which I do not see often in art nowadays and his materials are simple, identifiable and mature. He knows very well his field and, most notably, how to handle it.
Although I tend to disregard the artist’s nationality, I’d hazard the guess that Karakatsanis originates acts and expresses through purely original European aesthetic media, which is important, typical and defies time, in a universal artistic market, which desperately needs originality and the artist’s individual expression.
Visual arts are not the medium through which fashion can bulldoze aesthetic differences, personalities or honest expression. What is intriguing is that all of us, in our Levi’s jeans, promote the diversity in our being, our national, ideological and social differences, with authenticity and realisation of the rules of the tough aesthetic challenge.

Palma de Mallorca, 5 February 2005
Pedro A. Serra y Bauzá
Chairman of the "Es Baluard" Foundation of the Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art, Palma de Mallorca

Artist Exhibitions



Solo Exhibitions
2015
Morfi Gallery, Limassol, Cyprus
Corinne Pinelo Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
Liza’s Krügermeier Gallery, Stege/Møn, Denmark
2014
Papatzikou Gallery, Veria, Greece
2013
Beton7, Athens, Greece
Chrysa Art Gallery, Katerini, Greece
Art Gallery Athanasia Peftoulidi, Alexandroupolis, Greece
Tsichritzis Visual Arts Foundation, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
Home Identity, Quito, Ecuador
VSC-Athens Voice and Swallowing Center, Athens, Greece
2012
Technohoros Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
2011
Chrysa Art Gallery, Katerini, Greece
2010
ekfrasi-yianna grammatopoulou, Athens, Greece
2009
Morfi Gallery, Limassol, Cyprus
Art Galleri,Alexandroupoli, Greece
2008
ekfrasi-yianna grammatopoulou, Athens, Greece
2007
Galerie Argo, Nicosia, Cyprus
Atrion, Heraklio/Crete, Greece
Architecture Studio Zoe Antoniadi, Athens, Greece
2006
Galerie Christina Karella, Athens, Greece
Morfi Gallery, Limassol, Cyprus
Lucia Vassiliadis, Patmos, Greece
Trigono Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
2005
Galerie Zita-Mi, Thessaloniki, Greece
Astrolavos Art Galleries, Athens, Greece
ArtSpace Gallery, Santorini, Greece
2004
Galerie Minima, Mykonos, Greece
Silogi 12, Spetses, Greece
2003
Epoches Art Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
Cycladian Pinacotheque, Hermoupolis/Syros, Greece
Galerie Minima, Mykonos, Greece
2002
Galerie Argo, Athens, Greece
Morfi Gallery, Limassol, Cyprus
Galerie Argo, Nicosia, Cyprus
2001
Epoches Art Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
Chrysa Art Gallery, Katerini, Greece
Prisma Art Gallery, Livadia, Greece
1999
Galerie Minima, Mykonos, Greece
Asaya, Glyfada/Athens, Greece
Espace Kreonidis, Athens, Greece
Galerie Argo, Nicosia, Cyprus
Pantarei Art Seminyak, Kuta/Bali, Indonesia
Galerie Scorpios, Trikala, Greece
Galeria Berruete Regoyos, Madrid, Spain
1997
Morfi Gallery, Limassol, Cyprus
Galerie Amimoni, Ioannina, Greece
Kreonidis Art Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
Vicky Dracos Contemporary Art, Portes, Athens, Greece
1996
Kreonidis Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
Kreonidis Art Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
Art Gallery Hermoupolis, Hermoupolis/Syros, Greece
Galerie Argo, Nicosia, Cyprus
1995
Galerie Argo, Nicosia, Cyprus
1994
Art Gallery Hermoupolis, Hermoupolis/Syros, Greece
1993
Gloria Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
Galerie Desmos, Heraklio, Greece
1992
Loulaki Gallery, Hydra, Greece
Vicky Dracos Contemporary Art, PDR, Athens, Greece
1991
Gloria Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus
Galerie K7, Thessaloniki, Greece
Villa Eolos, Mykonos, Greece
Galerie Titanium, Athens, Greece
1990
Galerie K7, Thessaloniki, Greece
Galerie Opsis, Mykonos, Greece
European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Delphi, Greece
Galleria Fontanella Borghese, Rome, Italy
1989
Galerie Gisela Bollhagen, Kunstcentrum Alte Molkerei, Worpswede/Bremen, Germany
Galerie Meissner, Kempinski Atlantic, Hamburg, Germany
To Trito Mati Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
1988
Loulaki Gallery, Hydra, Greece
1987
Municipal Gallery, Corfu, Greece
Epoches Art Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
Trigono Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
1986
Galerie Artio, Athens, Greece
Galeria Joan Oliver, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
1985
Iakinthos Art Gallery, Kifissia/Athens, Greece
Municipal Gallery – Museum of Modern Greek Art, Rhodes,Greece
1983
Instituto Cultural Espanol, Reina Sofia, Athens, Greece
1982
Instituto Cultural Espanol, Reina Sofia, Athens, Greece



Participation in Art Fairs & International exhibitions
2015
2nd IDF Expo Oman ‘15, International Exhibition Centre, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
20th Art Athina ‘15, Athens, Greece
1st Art Thessaloniki ‘15, Thessaloniki, Greece
Opera Galleria, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Muscat Hills Golf & Country Club, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
2014
19th Art Athina ‘14, Athens, Greece
4411 Montrose Gallery, Houston / Texas, USA
Whitfield Fine Art, London, U.&<922;.
2013
18th Art Athina ‘13, Athens, Greece,
8th contemporary istanbul ‘13, Istanbul, Turkey
Home Identity, Quito, Ecuador
Arts Center-Parko Eleftherias, Athens, Greece
Bibliotheca Alexandrina BACC East Exhibitions Hall & The Cavafy Museum, Alexandria, Egypt
Exhibition of fine arts in cooperation with the association of visual artists of Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2011
17th Art Athina ‘11, Athens, Greece,
Dakar Arts Festival ‘11, Dakar, Senegal
Goulandris Natural History Museum, Athens, Greece
2010
16th Art Athina 10, Athens, Greece
2009
15th Art Athina 09,Athens, Greece
Temporary Art Product Exchange (TAPE), Arnhem, The Netherlands
2007
11th Art Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
16th Europ’ART, Geneva, Switzerland
27th Stockholm Art Fair Stockholm,Sweden
2004
11th Art Athina 04, Athens, Greece
Diana Gallery, Athens - Epoches Art Gallery, Kifissia - Galerie Argo, Athens, Greece
2003
10th Art Athina 03, Athens, Greece
2002
Santa Croce in Fossabanda, Pisa, Italy
Terme Tamerici, Montecatini Terme, Italy
Castello Doria, Porto Venere, Italy
2001
Technopolis- Gazi, Athens, Greece
2000
Derek Johns LTD, London, England U.K.
1999
7th Art Athina 99, Athens, Greece
1994
8th International Triennale, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi,India
1991
BP Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
1990
Sotheby’s, New York, U.S.A
BP Oil Europe, Brussels, Belgium
1988
Soviet Artists Cultural Union, EETE, Moscow, Russia
1987
Organization of the Port of Piraeus, OLP, Piraeus, Greece
EETE, (Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece), Sofia, Bulgaria
1986
Fundacion Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain
E & C Department, La Vella, Andorra
1985
Itinerant exhibition of FPPU (Familiares de Presos Politicos Uruguayos) Foundation of Montevideo, Uruguay in Thessaloniki & Heraklio, Greece - Lausanne, Bern & Geneva, Switzerland - Uppsala & Stockholm, Sweden – Montreal, Canada - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil- Caracas, Venezuela - Paris, France
1983
La Lonja, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
1982
8th Bienal Internacional del Deporte en las Bellas Artes, Palacios de Exposiciones de El Retiro,Madrid, Spain
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Artist Publications



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Artist Collections



Collections - Museums:

Athens, Greece, The American College of Greece Art Collection
Athens, Greece, Meli&<225; Residence Giorgio Hotel Collection
Athens, Greece, Vorre's Museum
Athens, Greece, Camper’s collection
Barcelona, Spain, Fundaciün Joan Mirü, Parc de Montjuic
Bremen, Germany, HANSA Dienstleistungs - und Vertriebs GmbH
Brussels, Belgium, BP Oil Europe
Corfu, Greece, Municipal Art Gallery of Corfu
Frankfurt, Germany, B.Wetzestein Showroom
Hamburg, Germany, Lloyd
Hania, Greece, Orthodox Academy of Crete
Hermoupolis/Syros, Greece, Cycladian Pinacotheque
La Vella, Andorra, E & Cultural Department
Limassol, Cyprus, Metropolite of Limassol
Limassol, Cyprus, Sun Flower Beach Resort
Limassol, Cyprus, Four Seasons Hotel Beach Resort
London, England, U.K., Derek Johns LTD Collection
Madrid, Spain, Colecciün particular de S.M. los Reyes de Espa&<241;a
Madrid, Spain, Palacio de Cristal, Retiro
Montevideo, Uruguay, Fundaciün FPPU
Naoussa/Paros, Greece, Astir of Paros Hotel
Nemea, Greece, Skouras Winery
Nicosia, Cyprus, Middle Insurance Collection
Nicosia, Cyprus, Cyprus State Art Gallery
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Museo de Arte Moderno y Contempor&<225;neo "Es Baluard"
Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Colecciün Gruppo Pedro Serra
Rhodes, Greece, Municipal Art Gallery of Rhodes – Modern Greek Art Museum
Rome, Italy, Istituto Orientale
Santorini, Greece, Museum J. Chryssos
Soller, Mallorca, Spain, Museo de Arte Moderno y Contempor&<225;neo “Can Prunera”
Thessaloniki, Greece, Macedonian Centre
Ubud/Bali, Indonesia, Neka Museum
Xanthi, Greece, Prefecture
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Artist Favorites



Personal Favorites



Personal info and favorite links and sites coming soon.