Stephen Riolo

Published by The Breeder:

Jannis Varelas
Preview Wednesday May 13th
Exhibition Dates: Wednesday May 13 – July 7, 2009

The Breeder is pleased to announce, “blue soldier – opera costumes ” an exhibition of new works by Greek born, Vienna based artist Jannis Varelas. This presentation marks a new phase in the artists stylistic maturation, as the extravaganza of exotic, anarchic images, which embellished characters from his earlier works, has given way to a smoother more heraldic style that highlights a clear refinement of content, compositional sobriety and individual attitude.
Each work in this particularly phantasmagoric series is constructed from angular geometric elements and sharp calligraphic strokes. Etched in charcoal or painted in gouache this underlying compositional structure supports Varelas’s increasingly complex and stylized form of mixed media collage. The surface of each work is graced by a collection of uncanny faces and cryptic symbols taken from tribal antiquity, as well as contemporary fashion. These mask-like compositions, often arranged in vertical columns, form almost totemic structures that give rise to Varelas’s colossal human figures. The artists great elaboration on decorative elements from his earlier works has also led to a signature halo effect, which crowns these hybrid titans. Like dark, feathery auras, these radiating streaks of graphite are often drawn around the creatures head or encompass a specific symbolic element, accentuating its motion or power.
Figurative assemblages such as these seem to emerge from a deeply subconscious space floating between Jungian Archetypal theory, stern Modernist deco and Hanna Hochs or Lizzitskys most minimal collage works. Beneath the masks and halos, each work, like each solo exhibition of Varelas, is part and parcel of a larger narrative on the psychosynthesis of an individual, group or social space. This series, entitled Proletkult -X Opera Costume, is a collection of statements on contemporary class structure and struggle, viewed through the action of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (A Remembrance of Things Past). Each figure or “costume” represents those ideological weapons that successive generations of dissident artists have used to identify and question cultural hegemony. With subtle references to severe deco and Theophil von Hansen’s Athenian neo-classicism, Proletkult-X Opera Baron de Charlus is also the anthropomorphic set design for staging this metaphorical battle. It is the symbolic representation of that seat of power which creative dissidence has always sought to depose.

Born 1977, Athens
Lives and works in Athens and Vienna

Education

1998 -2003 Athens School of Fine Arts
2001 University of Fine Arts, Barcelona
2004 -2006 Royal College of Arts, London

Solo shows

2009
The Breeder, Athens

2008
Mont Ventoux, Technopolis, Gkazi, Athens, curated by Nadia Argyropoulou

2007
Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna

2006
Spaceship Columbia, Frieze Art Fair, London (with The Breeder)
Caliban Case Kirkhoff Gallery, Copenhagen

2004
Juvenile, Gazon Rouge, Athens

2003
Karikomoontes, Gallery 7, Athens

Selected Group Shows

2009
Bright Morning Star, Kenneth Anger series, Galeria Ze de Bois, Lisbon

2008
Prospect.1 New Orleans, 1st international art biennial in the city of New Orleans, curated by Dan Cameron
The Skat Players, Vilma Gold gallery, London. Curated by Sarah McCrory
JEKYLL ISLAND, Honor Fraser gallery, L.A. – curated by Max Henry
Whatever’s Whatever, Hydra school projects, curated by Dimitrios Antonitsis
Quo Vadis, Autocenter, Berlin

2007
Wild West, Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin, curated by Daniel Von Wichelhaus
True Romance, The Breeder, Athens
”Destroy Athens”, 1st Athens Biennial, Athens – curated by Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka Yio, Augustine Zenakos
I Sigxroni Elliniki skini, hellexpo garage, curated by Nadjia Argyropoulou
Black and White, Ibid Projects, London
RRRIPP!! Paper Fashion, New Benaki Museum, Athens, curated by Vassilis Zidianakis/ Atopos, Athens

2006
Royal College of Art M.A. Degree show, London
What Remains is Future, city of Patras, Cultural Capital of Europe, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou
Panic Room, Drawings from The Dakis Joannou Collection, DESTE Foundation, Athens , curated by Jeffrey Deitch and Kathy Grayson

2005
Emblematic Display, curated by Catherine Wood, ICA, London
Absolute Summer, Kirkhoff Gallery, Copenhagen
The Hidden Charms of Drawing, A.A.Art, Athens
Art Basel Miami Beach
LISTE 05, Basel
The Armory Show, NY

2004
Resemblance Some How, Benaki Museum, Athens

2003
Anthropography, Frisiras Museum, Athens

Selected Bibliography

2008,
1st Athens Biennial, Frieze Magazine, Issue 112, Jan-Feb 2008
Jannis Varelas, They Shoot homos don’t they? Issue 004

2007
Man on the moon – Krinzinger projecte, 2007, cat. (Peter Weiermair, Severin Dunser)
Jannis Varelas, Man on the moon, Christian egger, Spike Magazine No 12,
“wild West” in der Galerie Gebr. Lehmann, Berlin, Salon West, Dominikus Muller, Artnet Magazine, Dec. 2007
1st Athens Biennial, Destroy Athens cat.
Jannis Varelas, Useless Magazine No 5

2006
Possibilities: Interviews with young Greek artistes, Christopher Marinos, Futura Pub.
Jannis Varelas, Artforum, Dec 2006
Those are pearls that were his eyes, on the work of Jannis Varelas , Catherine Wood The Breeder, Athens
Jannis Varelas, Ken Miller, Tokion magazine
World Tour Rolls Into Town Sprawling but Tidy, Holland Cotter, The New York Times
Contemporary Drawings from the Dakis Joannou Collection, Giannis Konstantinidis, Athens Voice

2005
London in Six Easy Steps, Dan Fox, Frieze
Emblematic Display, Catherine Wood, ICA, London
Jannis Varelas Who are These People, Local Folk
Jannis Varelas Des Males Ambigus, Arts Magazine
Jannis Varelas, Time Out