Kostas Sklavenitis / Kneaded
14 February - 28 March
2020
Bosse & Baum
Studio BGC&D, Bussey Building,
133 Rye Ln
London SE15 4ST
All images are courtesy the artist and Bosse & Baum.
Photo credit: Damian Griffiths
Press release
Bosse
& Baum is pleased to present Kneaded, an exhibition of new paintings
and wall murals by the Greek artist Kostas Sklavenitis. This is the artist’s
first exhibition with Bosse & Baum, and in London. In this body of work
Sklavenitis investigates the social significance and symbolism of bread. The
production, sale, and sharing of bread forms a key narrative and symbolic
element, which results in highly emotive works that evoke comparisons with both
prehistoric cave drawings and modernist abstraction, giving the paintings a
sense of historicity and timelessness. The worlds that the artist creates are
bright, filled with light and movement, with figures overlapping and
conjoining, as their lives are impacted by the various processes key to the
production of this essential component within worldwide cultures and societies.
In
the series of three large paintings in the exhibition, Sklavenitis distills the
essence of this into nostalgic motifs commenting on wider ideas around
production, distribution and consumption. The painting entitled Yusurum
Party depicts bread sellers at a bustling market, the word ‘Yusurum’
describes a gathering of Greek immigrants who came to Greece after the First
World War in the 1920s; the work StudioKitchen is filled with the sound
of chatter and the tinkling of coins at the bakery; the deafening roar of
machinery as the wheat is gathered is captured by ByzanTan, where the
colour palette reflects the warmth and simplicity of expression. Bread is in
essence universalising, consumed as a staple food around the world, often with
spiritual, secular and ritualistic significance. It can be cheap and simple, or
be altered in a virtually infinite number of ways to suit any culture or
occasion. It is also one of the world’s oldest foods, having been consumed and
adapted over millennia from its humble beginnings more
than ten thousand years ago. Bread is therefore a shared experience, which has
taken on significance beyond nutrition, that eludes geographic or temporal
limits.
Sklavenitis
stimulates all five senses, providing a visual feast of colour and line,
combining the importance of taste and smell, as well as conveying a deep sense
of texture emphasised by the inclusion of sand and jesmonite in the wall
murals. He uses frescos, paintings on walls and canvas, to create a
Gesamtkunstwerk, a “total work of art”. The exhibition space, like the
paintings, has no specific focal point, drawing the eye in equal measure across
the breadth and depths of the paintings and walls. The flowing compositions and
striking colours create an immersive environment and are an important
continuation of his style of work to-date.
Biography
Kostas
Sklavenitis’ painting practice explores a range of media, materials and
surfaces. The artist explores scale through immersive wall murals, large
paintings and smaller works which perform like peeping holes into the
environments he paints. Often depicting scenes of everyday life, his
inspiration is drawn from his own personal experience of growing up in
Thessaloniki, Greece, and from working in a culturally diverse city like
London. He is interested in the subjects of tradition, religion, and culture,
from sources as diverse as folklore tales, gatherings at church or Sunday
markets and craftsmen’s workshops. These themes, through which the artist
explores cultural myths and narratives around life, love, death, and faith, are
communicated through colourful and vivid compositions in his paintings.
Kostas
Sklavenitis (. 1990, Thessaloniki) lives and works in London. Sklavenitis
graduated from the Royal College of Art, London in 2019 and the Fine and
Applied Arts from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2015. Recent
exhibitions include Abracadabra, Assembly House, Leeds (2019); Something Else,
Kazan, Russian (2019); Something Else, Novgorod, Russia (2019); Something Else,
Triumph Gallery, Moscow (2019); WIP Show, RCA, London (2018); Magen Vibratoria
Bajo el Paraguas de su Reproducción, Museo Nahim Isaías,Guayaquil, Ecuador
(2017). The artist has the following scholarships : The Schilizzi foundation
Scholarship (2019); Maria Cassimati Foundation (2019); Neon Foundation
Scholarship (2018).