New Dawn at CAN gallery, Athens

“Art is not, it does not exist as part of a continuous presence and of a continuous representation. It does not comprise an event that is, which is there, but unfolds in spacetime in a very specific way, in its own world, which it makes available to the world. It gives while at the same time it withdraws, provides and takes back what it offers, it inspires its -destined to collapse- interpretations.” (Kostas Axelos, The Opening towards the Upcoming and the Enigma of Art)

Very much influenced by music the artist composes complex colorful landscapes, which he then baptizes with various song titles. Music at this point though is a little bit more than just a point of inspiration. It sets the identity of his works and gives the work a rythmical tempo that painterly translates into parts full of intensity and strongly symmetrical color fields. Bright, full of bold color contrasts, these ‘spiritual landscapes’ are in conflict with the natural inclination of the human mind towards order and measure. They open a window into a world full of sensations. There is nothing quite about Stamkopoulos’ paintings, like there is nothing predictable or strictly pre-planned about them. If these works were words they would be shouting and if they were a song it would definetely be loud.

Up until now, the artist has been working synthetically, analyzing color and then putting it back together in a manner that it may have seemed chaotic but was actually quite methodical and planned. In his new series of works Stamkopoulos makes a huge turn and embraces chance in order to minimize the influence of his conscious upon painting for a result that is rather random and unexpected. The artist paints his canvases in many successive layers that overlap each other, leaving some uncovered and some blind areas which then in turn he covers with color while he repeats the same gesture over and over again. The final composition is not visible to him at any point in this procedure until the end, when the final layer is applied and complete and the colorblind areas are uncovered.

This way Stamkopoulos manages to isolate each layer from the next in order to concentrate in color and in the rythm of his airbrush. The ability to work on each layer separately offers an unprecedented sense of freedom which translates directly to the viewer as core emotion. This clear and simple creative process becomes the vehicle of this complex painting experience and defines Stamkopoulos’ artistic language which aims to express both emotions and more abstract, metaphysical concepts, which lie outside the realm of consciousness.