Apostolos Yayannos

19 October – 30 November 2017
Gallery K, Nicosia

Born in Peloponnese, in Greece in 1945, Apostolos Yayannos has lived and worked in Athens for over 50 years, producing an impressive body of work. He has participated in over 100 group exhibitions in 14 countries including North America and Australia, and has had 69 solos across Europe, including six in Gallery K (1990-2017).

His work is also on permanent display in numerous prestigious public and private collections, embassies and museums.

Throughout his career, Apostolos has pursued innovation and diversity of artistic expression, strongly influenced by the progressive tendencies of post-war Modernism. He started out as a graphic designer but during the 1970s successfully made the transition to painting. Subsequently he has experimented with installation, worked extensively with mixed media, illustrated books by celebrated authors, and published books on Hellenic folk tradition and the shadow theatre.

Sensuous swirls of luscious, intense colour curl and sweep across the opulent paintings by Apostolos inhabiting paradise gardens, jungles and mountain crags.

The bright, gleaming eyes of birds and big cats gaze out from the walls of Gallery K just as they did during its inaugural exhibition back in 1990. There is nothing sentimental about these creatures; they retain their dignity, the spirit of their savage beauty. They are predators that prowl or wait expectantly, camouflaged by their surroundings, in an environment hostile to man, but rapidly being destroyed by him.

Flowers are a subject that Apostolos has explored for many years. Some critics and painters dismiss flowers as superficial or trivial subject matter, but serious draughtsmen know that flowers are exceedingly complex, intricate structures. They are potent metaphors for birth, vulnerability, attraction, celebration, passion and death. There is nothing trivial about nature.