Ioannis Filippopoulos

Note by Caroline Haller

Athens based artist Ioannis Filippopoulos (b.2004) emphasizes the reflection of light and color on individuals and objects in his works. Complementing his choice of bold, saturated colors is a lyricism in the movement of his brushstrokes and an informality in the way he allows some colors to drip down the paper. This unfinished, or “Non-finite,” style allows the viewer to engage in multiple ways with his creations as it leaves some things for the viewer to fill in for themselves. 

For the Florence Biennale XIV; “I Am You. Individual and Collective Identities in Contemporary Art and Design,” Ioannis submits three acrylics on paper which highlight how representing collective identity tropes in artistic ways can help individuals negotiate their own unique identities. 

 

This first piece presented here is an acrylic sketch of the head of a statue of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. By setting the warm yellow tones against the complementary cool blue tones Ioannis creates a rich interaction in the environment. The saturated colors highlight the richly complicated identity surrounding the ancient Egyptian civilization. Often the stories of all civilizations inhabiting Egypt throughout time are simplified into a singular conflicted narrative. In cases like this, the idea of a collective identity creates a conflict, as there are many unique individual aspects to different groups of people who have inhabited Egypt across time. Ioannis questions the nature of this collective identity in this acrylic on paper. It is important to question the nature of the collective Egyptian identity specifically as it relates to current critical race theory. Although Egypt is geographically part of the African continent it has been historically separated from it in terms of scholarship.

 

 

The second, an example of his figurative painting, features a nude model seated against an unfinished backdrop of colors.

 

 

Artists and viewers will be accustomed to the thin, feminine, nude models of old, which represent a long-held standard of beauty. Here Ioannis’s model questions these standards of beauty in several ways. First and foremost, her overweight body does not fit the stereotypical nude model. Further highlighting her uniqueness is her bright pink hair which stands out like the peaked flames of a burning fire. His loose paint strokes and dripping paint leaves a fluid environment that is ever shifting in and out of focus. Ioannis left the model’s foot unpainted and unfinished. This unfinished technique allows a dialogue between the viewer and the model as they consider themselves in relation to her. Ioannis situates the model as worthy of our consideration!

 

 

In a chromatic explosion, Ioannis explores his own idea of Cosmogony in this third acrylic on paper. Adapted from the Greek, the term Cosmogony refers to the birth and creation of a new world. Ioannis’s abstract representation is optimistic of how our many identities will harmonize with each other to create a new collective. 

 

Ioannis is currently a student at the School of Fine Arts in Athens.