Artists

Tasos Pavlopoulos

Press release

Skoufa Gallery presents Tasos Pavlopoulos' new work, who after eleven years of conscious 'silence' and abstinence, dynamically reappears with his solo exhibition 'The Sound of Silence'. The artist, prefaces the book that accompanies the exhibition of the same title, with a sarcastic and humorous text, and in the form of a retrospective 'manifesto' writes: 'Eleven years passed in a rush, since my last exhibition at a gallery. I was not painting for many and varied reasons: the witches of Salem cast spells on me, I was abducted by savages from a jungle tribe, shipwrecked like Robinson, and was chained by the Lilliputians, robbed five banks and when remorse struck, I locked myself in a Buddhist monastery, I went on a hyena safari with Hemingway and shortly after, signed onto a fishing boat hunting barracuda. Stop! You need not know more. Well then, let me confess one more thing to further enhance my reputation: three Eskimo gallerists repeatedly assaulted me in their igloo, until I suffered frostbites. I swear I shall never again eat reindeer, seal, nor orca'. Referring to the unconventional 'look' of his work, he continues: 'I have little to tell you about these works. Almost nothing. I will simply express my counter-argument, my doubts and objections through my art. My objections to everything. My works are my objections. They render my paintings full of allegories, a provocative parody of all the foolish stereotypes of contemporary so-called social order. The Dadaist humor that my art openly contains, carefully concealing my anger, is merely a symbolic reminder: first, that no one is immortal, and second, do not pretend you do not see the Elephant in the Room. Next time, I shall paint a sperm whale…' He concludes: 'I declare myself more ready than ever to lay all my cards on the table in this exhibition, staking everything. The moment has come for the sound of my silence to become deafening'.