The exhibition “Alkis Pierrakos. Lepanto: The Naval Battle” opens its doors at the Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Gallery today (February 5, 2015). The Benaki Museum had presented a retrospective exhibition of Alkis Pierrakos at the Pireos Street Annexe in 2007.
The exhibition is curated by Katerina Koskina and organised by the State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki) and The J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum.
About the exhibition
A very important and crucial historical event for the development of the European civilization, the Naval Battle of Lepanto, the Mediterranean Sea as a setting, and the art of painting as a mean of narrative and image making power are the basic elements of the exhibition. The artist, inspired by the Naval Battle of Lepanto, is presenting a new series of drawings with Indian ink on paper, which he created since 2011. In these works, dominated by the expressionist intensity and dynamism of the forms and lines, Pierrakos gives a dramatic sense of a violent conflict. Without resorting to full abstraction, he not only describes a historical event, but uses it as a motive for painting.
The exhibition was initially presented at the State Museum of Contemporary Art at the Moni Lazariston venue in Thessaloniki (October 10, 2014-January 10, 2015) and will be also presented in Corfu, at the Latin Chapel of the Old Fortress (April 4-June 14, 2015).
The exhibition is being organised by the State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki) and The J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum.
About the artist
Born on November 21st, 1920, in Thessaloniki,Greece. Until 1947 he lived in Yugoslavia, Thessaloniki and Athens. He studied at the Gewerbeschule of Basel (1948-1952), at the Slade School of Fine Arts and at the Central School of Arts and Crafts of London, where he met Oskar Kokoschka. In 1954 he moved permanently to Paris, where he lives and works until today. Since 1980, he has been working for long periods at Oxylithos, Evia. He has been a member and the co-ordinator of the group “La Ligne et le Signe”, which aimed to combine the limitations of drawing with the freedom of colour. In 1995 the “Association pour la Promotion de l’oeuvre d’ A. Pierrakos (APOAP)” was established.
His works have been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
Duration: until March 28, 2015.
Venue: N. Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Gallery, 3 Kriezotou St., Athens.
