The exhibition
Yianna Grammatopoulou Gallery presents Kornelios Grammenos: Repatriation Vol. 2, the second phase of the artist’s sculpturalinvestigationsinto the notion of return first revealed at the gallery in the exhibition entitled Repatriation Vol. 1 in 2017.
While Repatriation Vol. 1 charted reveries of home and the familiar, Vol. 2 concretizes a personal journey with a scrutiny of the external. Grammenos wields wood, paint, marble and iron to capture and convey the impulses that propel his universal perceptions. The artist uses the term “shadow body” to signify the force that channels and protects the essence of his creationsand furnishes the facility for apprehension. Grammenos states:“If the aim of art was and maybe still is the broadening of our consciousness about the cosmos then it would be good if the work of art, along with other qualities, is direct and easy to decipher, so that a link is created between the artist and the viewer – or in some cases not, which is also significant.”
The sculptures embody the aphorism, “Verum ess ipsum factum” (What is true is precisely what is made).
Beyond mere depiction, Grammenos aims to tender the essential being of his subjects symbolically through the meticulous arrangement of the details of the formal body. Sculpture and painting are united in a single entity:The cathedral, the philosopher, the dog. A unique environment is sustained through the disciplined and supple construction. Color is deployed as a structural device, energizing the composition and accentuating the harmony of the whole. For example: Nirvana imparts serenity and balance via the symmetrical juxtaposition of white and black marble. Each sculpture specifically, and the entire exhibit synergistically,realize the nexus between memory, history and the imagination and the concrete intentions of the artist. The internal and external rituals that define and constitute conceptions of place and homeland are immaculately rendered in the achievement of the repatriation of the world.
Niki Papaspyrou, Art Historian
February 2018
— The artist
Selected Works
