CACT E-STUDIO
Nikos Aslanidis was born in 1980. He graduated from the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2004. He lives and works in Thessaloniki.
Painting sui generis
Nikos Aslanidis’ paintings always bring me back to the core values of artistic creation, to what the artistic evolution will never be able to resist to, because a meaningful painting always becomes more genuine as years go by.
I have been following his work’s progress for long, to find out there are certain stable and distinct elements in the entire range of Aslanidis’ artistic production.
On the one hand, Aslanidis builds and develops his works’ structure methodically employing a consistent and restless technical research; he deeply believes in the overall principles and values of painting. On the other hand, he focuses on an anthropocentric viewpoint, surely not uncritically, but mostly in a psychographic and ambiguous approach.
Each portrait stands for an introvert enigma: undefined human figures, somewhere between childhood and adulthood, between innocence and guilt; however, standing in transition “areas”. The environments in which they stand are silent, cold, formed with absolute purity and structural geometry.
The figures depicted, however, are awkward, yet solid, with warm colors forming their characteristics; they are embedded in an empty space, full of vibrations. Strong and proverbial, they seem to be facing their souls with embarrassment. This kind of gazing goes beyond the two dimensions of the canvas and it is transmitted to the viewer, who becomes a participant and an accomplice to the scenery. Inevitably the viewer wonders if his/her gaze in the artwork becomes indiscreet and seeks points of identification with these creatures.
Among these environments and those figures something further mediates: the dimension of time. There is always the feeling that the picture is a scene that will be followed by another one after a while and then everything will change. Shifting from agony to laughter, from irony to anticipation, a stable circumstance of transition consistently dominates.
If there is a plain but substantial and profound representation of the human unease and of the conflict between logic and emotional expression, between the real and the imaginary, then I am confident that Nikos Aslanidis’ work is one of the most powerful and firm versions of this typification.
Τhessaloniki 2012
