The creation of a bionic man, in a universe where technology and human experience go hand in hand, forms an important point of reference in the art of Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, presented as part of his exhibition at The Blender Gallery in Athens, between 21/04 – 01/06/16. In his visual narrative on linking man and machine the artist illustrates for Blender his Biomorphics, a “notebook of drawings” that form the original idea, the vehicle to capture the cellular structure that attempts to reconstruct man, to make him something more than a man.
From Talos and Golem to the medieval puppets, phantasy mythology has documented infinite attempts of man to create in his image the absolute anthropomorphic machine. Fascination with creation that transforms man to creator has been captured in classic literature, with the characteristic example of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, in cinema with the emblematic robot in “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang and in our days in the culture of comics and videogames.
Such love for comics and videogames was of a great influence for the artistic development of Papamichalopoulos. In comics and in videogames he discovered a huge visual world. Just as the videogames do not care to “look” like paintings or to reproduce a coherent world, so too the artist did not want to resort to a conventional portrait painting, to a portrayal of a cohesive world. He consciously immersed himself in the creation of a web without boundaries that brought together comics, painting, engraving, design and digital applications.
The exhibition constitutes a study on the graphisms that Papamichalopoulos developed in his first comic, entitled “The Japanese”, in 2000 (the third version of the successful album has just been published). Such kind of “graphisms”, as the author himself calls them, are a recurring theme in his work, even before 2000. Frank Miller and his comic “Ronin” – more specifically the pieces that formed the artificial part of the main character – have been of a foremost influence. In a similar way to Miller, Papamichalopoulos does not limit himself to a narrative that simply results in the creation of a comic. Equipped with an inquiring look and a solid knowledge of the history of art, the Greek artist attempts a unique combination and integrates organically into his own universe the stylistic aftermath of Oriental art – the art of Hokusai and Hiroshi – together with the “Westerner” Yves Tanguy and Jean Dubuffet, affording to his work a greater depth.[…]
Text by Giorgos Milonas (extract).
The exhibition “Biomorphics” ( 21/04 – 01/06/16, Βlender Gallery), and the following activities, are an indispensable part of the Big Golden Room, which was presented in the beginning of 2015, in the Myseum of Greek Folk Art. The two first coloring books of White Island Works will be presented in Comicdom, between the 15nth and 17nth of April. Towards the end of June, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos will participate in a group exhibition hosted by the Heiraklidon Museum. In August, the National Archaeological Museum of Athens will host the artist’s solo show, titled “Representations of the the Artificial Man”.Finally, in the autumn of 2016, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos presents his work in the Vorres Museum, in a group exhibition of contemporary Greek art.
Find out more about the exhibition here.
