In-between the crossfire of the visible and the intelligible, of the portrayed and the imaginary, of comprehension and interpretation, Vasilis Zografos runs through a river of colors, compositions and narratives through his distinctively personal idiom.
Vasilis Zografos
Works that reinvent the world
Text: Marni Hatziemmanouil
Vasilis Zografos is a visual artist, assistant professor at the School of Visual & Applied Arts of AUTh’s Faculty of Fine Arts, founder of the Vita Zita studio, where he hosts exhibitions featuring the works mainly of young artists. Having devoted more than twenty-five years in the creative process, the artist from Lesvos lives and works in Thessaloniki, a city that he loves dearly. However, he spends his time between Greece and abroad. “Journeys, the preparation of the exhibitions, the bibliography research, atterning artistic events are the steady pillars of my everyday life,” he explains.
Holder of two master’s degrees from the Academy of Fine Arts of Groninger, in the Netherlands, and the Interdepartmental Program at AUTh’s Faculty of Engineering, on “Protection, Preservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Mechanisms”, Vasilis Zografos believes that “art can be taught out of anything. The schools configure your way of seeing and thinking, but it’s more than important to discover by yourself your own mode of creation. Teaching demands respect towards the students as a whole and towards each individual person. As for the notion of talent, I consider it rather out-of-date nowadays. I perceive talent mainly as an increased interest that leads to specialized skills and aptitudes.”
He has held twenty-one individual exhibitions in venues such as the former Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki and The Helen Day Art Center in Vermont, USA, he is a regular at the galleries Eleftheria Tseliou (Athens), Lola Nikolaou (Thessaloniki) and Espace L (Geneva), and has taken part in more than fifty collective exhibitions in Greece, Europe, the USA, Brazil, Turkey and China. Vasilis Zografos has received critical acclaim for his works, such as the one wrote by Thalia Stefanidou, art historian, critic and curator, who hails him as one of the most distinguished Greek painters: “The enigmatic disposition, ambiguity and psychological tension are the main traits of his work, which binds together incongruous elements such as realism and imagination, the ephemeral and the declaratory, irony and confusion. These elements are closely interwoven with his visual art language, carving a thin separation line between a recognizable everyday life and an eerily dreamlike world.”
Among his exhibitions we selectively mention the following held at the Espace L, Geneva (2024, 2022, 2018, 2017), gallery Eleftheria Tseliou, Athens (2020, 2015), The Current, Vermont, USA (2019), gallery Lola Nikolaou, Thessaloniki (2023, 2018), the former Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki (2012), gallery Batagianni, Athens (2012, 2009), gallery Mirta Demare, Rotterdam (2011), as well as his international participations at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2018), the National Museum of China, Beijing (2017), SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo (2017), MuCEM, Marseille (2014), the 1st and 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of
Contemporary Art (2007, 2014).
“As a student I was mesmerized by the great masters such as Tintoretto, Giotto, Vermeer, Manet, Balthus. Later on I discovered Richter, Tuymans, Borremans, and many others. In any case, I am interested in the diverse actions by visual artists of the contemporary scene.” Our visit to his atelier proved to be enlightening, as we saw the place where he lays out his soul and showcases his multifaceted work, decoding the fragile balances. “In my painting I aspire to rebuild a whole out of the sediment of the past knowledge. I depict through critical gaze elements both from the globalized landscape of today’s Western culture and a selection of iconic museum artifacts of past times or traditions, which have left their mark on the collective memory and function within, but mostly beyond, the modern societal context.”
In my painting I aspire to rebuild a whole out of the sediment of the past knowledge. I depict through critical gaze elements both from the globalized landscape of today’s Western culture and a selection of iconic museum artifacts of past times or traditions, which have left their mark on the collective memory and function within, but mostly beyond, the modern societal context.
Vasilis Zografos’ painting and ceramic works transcend the notion of depiction and reinvent the world, unwittingly alluding to the myth of Pygmalion, who sought divine help to breathe life into the soulless objects. Writer and professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Thomas Symeonidis, mentions: “More than a critique on the representation, the materiality and the autonomy of the medium, emphasis is placed on the aesthetic beauty and the thoughtfulness of the objects and the images. The achievement of an active passivity stands as the sign of beauty; the expression of a radical indifference.” Here’s what Vasilis Zografos has to say about his works: “I am a visual artist working on two dimensions, on different kinds of bedrocks, that is canvas, paper, aluminum. I began showcasing ceramic assemblages over the last five years. I consider these types of processes as a different version of painting.”
Denys Zacharopoulos, art historian, critic and curator, notes on Vasilis Zografos’ work: “As viewers we contemplate and ponder over the possibility of inhabiting a space of surprises, naked and haunted, innocent and untainted, yet terrific and terrifying through the intimacy and the almost immediate ease with which we could discern the unspoken and utter the unseen: as painters or as a part of the creation? The work invites and challenges us. Yet, with how much prudence and shame does the painter warn us, with such stern modesty does he deter us!”
In his atelier’s attic we walk through works from different times and phases of his life. Clusters, painted representations, relief images. What are the themes of his paintings? What is their underlying meaning? “The theme in painting is just the pretext to create a composition, which later opens up to multiple readings. Identifying a pattern in a work does not mean much. What’s important is to guide someone to their own connotations, associations, allegories and symbols. Each perceives any work of art according to their own arsenal of experiences.”
According to Stéphanie Bertrand, writer, art historian, critic and curator, the entirety of Vasilis Zografos’s work deals with the contemporary crisis of representation: “A crisis traced in the incapacity of personal images to signify something, as they remain undifferentiated as they take center stage, through the never-ending flow of stereotypical representations. His stylistic approach balances between the illustration of rulebooks and a realism that reveals concern, while he bypasses the meaningless allure of the academic method, as well as the easy criticism on what constitutes good and bad painting.”
Does he reach out to the audience? Does he turn his glance towards its direction while he paints and depicts his inner world? “If you ask me, artistic creation is first and foremost an internal need. You are faced up against yourself, as you are both the creator and the first viewer of your work. The audience comes next.” For Vasilis Zografos, the reward for his work comes in various forms: recognition from erudites in the field, participation in international fora and of course the credit from people around him that he values a lot. He does not think big in terms of goals and aspirations, his motto is “live in the moment”, while his life’s purpose is self-awareness. As for his friends, “they say I’m a good listener and a calm discussant. I despise all disputes, all forms of violence, any mean-spirited attitude no matter where it comes from.”
He is aware that Thessaloniki “remains an urban center that offers a comfortable way of life to its residents and visitors,” however it is not a city “that places great value in artistic creation.” He acknowledges, however, the effort of many institutions that “provide the city with invigorating touches, such as the Biennale hosted by MOMus and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.” Nowadays, as he says, “institutions such as museums and foundations, curators and galleries, that somehow dictate certain guidelines to the audience, play a pivotal role in turning the spotlight on artists.” His works can also be found in private collections, museums such as the
National Museum of Contemporary Art and MOMus, as well as in international exhibitions held in Greece and abroad.
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