Aris Kalaizis

Aris Kalaizis (* 1966 in Leipzig ) is a German - Greek painters.

Life

Aris Kalaizis grew up as the son of Greek emigrants in Leipzig. After an apprenticeship as an offset printer and retraining for photo lab technicians he began in 1992 to study painting at the Academy of Visual Arts, where he graduated with distinction in 1997.

From 1997 to 2000 he completed his master student studying with Arno Rink. A first domestic, public solo show took place in 2005 in Marburg Kunstverein. In 2007 he presented his first U.S. solo show in New York. He achieved international fame in 2010 through his participation in the Biennale di Venezia (12th Mostra Internazionale di Architettura ), and in 2011 he participated in the 4th Triennial in Guangzhou (China) known. The international Triennale, which took place in the Guangdong Museum of Art, Kalaizis granted a larger single room in which eight large-format images were presented. The hitherto most extraordinary exhibition " double view " in the Castle Museum Greiz found, however, in 2011 under the title instead, where Kalaizis presented first corpus of historic rooms in a contemporary context. His paintings are in several national and international art collections. In addition to his professor, who looked after him while studying, Aris Kalaizis was influenced in recent years, especially from the Baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera, as well as by the British artist Francis Bacon. Since 2000 he lives as a freelance painter in Leipzig. It is often attributed to the New Leipzig School.

Work

Kalaizis constructed today his, mostly caused from the dream paintings, with the aid of expensive productions or bodies which he draws on Handlungsort and initially, developing several photographs on their preliminary end. The sometimes surreal scenes in his paintings are developed from ideas that records Kalaizis after the manner of a screenplay. At the end of this process of creation arise picturesque ideals inner possibility worlds.

At the beginning of the work, however, is always the dream that evokes the inner image or ideal. If the inner picture, he builds in his studio with a realistic model or looking in reality by an external datum, usually a single background image, the ' is his, the next request background. Is that external condition is found, it makes of this place a photo. This self-made photo serves him mostly as the basis for the background layer. What follows is a meditative, contemplative process by thinking about what might happen before / with this image scene. This work Kalaizis approach differs fundamentally from the photo realists, since those challenging a new reality.

His formative structural principle is the antithesis, which reached the picturesque positioning - the target of a nuanced renewed project - to be called into question. In a time-consuming process, usually not more than five images are painted a year in which, while parallel sketches to existing ones. However, as can be nor assign these paintings from the surreal to the real, developed the American art historian, Carol Strickland, in relation to Kalaizis ' imagery, the concept of Sottorealismus.

Promise " Flushed with ambiguity his pictures reveal what they hide yet. But even on closer examination, their multiple layers of meaning are inexhaustible. Perhaps a new term is more significant for the description of his work as the concepts of realism or surrealism. Instead of sur, this means over or above, Sottorealismus is more appropriate here. Sotto ( or below ) points to the hidden in a color secrets that are buried under the surface of the story. "

What this usually arises images that evoke a certain wobble, a certain disruption of the internal equilibrium are. Life and death, dream and reality flow together weird. The Movable seems frozen and the rigid moving scary. Often the images are charged with a strange ferocity, in which everything is always at the same time: magic, grace, sweetness and mystery. Kalaizis orbiting whose images the topics of reality and imagination, often mentioned in discussions of the surrealist André Masson, who once said: "There is nothing more fantastic than reality ."

Work process

Characteristic of the working process of the artist Aris Kalaizis are the elaborate structures that arise in the run-up to its image projects. They serve the approach to the target image, which is finally converted picturesquely on the canvas. Paul -Henri Campbell wrote this: " Aris Kalaizis ( passes through ) to the images are several work stages: 1) Inner emptiness that makes susceptible to an epitome, 2) the patience these numinous sensation in real places, objects and figures rediscover, and 3) the building of this Inbildes in the mundane reality of the studio or the great outdoors, and 4) the photographic documentation of these elaborate setups where often entire cohorts of artisans, extras and professional actors are involved; . 5) design of the canvas shape of the image using these Photo documents " After completion of this preliminary work Kalaizis realized the most often painted in oil painting in his studio in Leipzig. This unusual for a painter process also forms a unique position in contemporary painting.

The above series documents the construction of the painted in oil painting " return of a farewell ," which forms the conclusion of the series. In order to implement the models, additional assistants are often necessary, for example, to lay floors, set up makeshift walls and paper, but also actors, lighting technicians or costume designer. Props are varied, for example, the root plate of a tree, aircraft turbines, live animals, etc.

Awards

Literature and documentation

• From unvoreiligen reconciliations. Catalog. Artco -Verlag, Leipzig 1997, Helmuth Stephan ( ed.) ( dt. / Engl. ) ISBN 3-9805681-2-1
• Athleticism and sense monarchy. Catalog, Torsten Reiter ( ed.) Maerz Galerie, Leipzig 2000 ( Ger. / Eng. )
• Brancard. Catalog, Maerz Galerie, Leipzig 2003, ( dt. / Engl. ) ISBN 3-9809215-0-6
• Uncertain Pursuits. Catalog, Marburg / Leipzig, 2005 ( Ger. / Eng. )
• Rubbacord. Catalog, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld / Leipzig 2006, ( dt. / Engl. ) ISBN 3-938025-81-6
• Making Sky. Monograph with catalog of works ( 1995-2009 ). Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2009, ( dt. / Engl. ) ISBN 978-3-7774-9065-6
• The double view. Catalog, Exhibition Palace Museum Greiz 2011, ISBN 978-3-9814378-0-5
• 4th Guangzhou Triennial. Catalog, exhibition Guangdong Museum of Art ( China), Guangzhou 2011 (Ch. / English ) ISBN 978-7-5362-4761-1
• ZDF - Artist portrait of Beate Tyron (2011)
• Sottorealism. Large-format monograph catalog of works ( 1994-2014 ). Paul -Henri Campbell ( Ed.) Imhof Verlag, Peter Berg, ( dt. / Engl. ) ISBN 978-3-86568-990-0

Exhibitions (selection)

Interviews

• Leipzig views in Dusseldorf. In: Rheinische Post online. 20 January 2011.
• I am not a representative of the Leipzig School, in: Germanwingsmag, Ger. / Eng. 27 /2009.
• I have nothing to say - that's why I paint. In: Cruiser - Leipzig magazine, 31 March 2009.