Apostolos Georgiou

Apostolos Georgiou was born in 1952 in Thessaloniki, he lives and works in Athens and Skopelos.

Apostolos Georgiou is a painter living in Athens and Skopelos. He studied Architecture at Hochschule fur Angewandte Kunst, Vienna and Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Florence.

The artist’s work explores themes of man’s existence by focusing on the human condition. While making reference to Greece in the 1950s, film, the traditions of Greek painting, and even theatrical scenery, Georgiou highlights profound feelings of alienation, solitude and humor. He paints short stories about the mythology of daily life, exposing existential moments of vulnerability and weakness, failure and emotional collapse.
While human beings are the main subject of the work, they are portrayed as anonymous figures without any individual characteristics. A desolate alter ego is revealed, portrayed with irony and distance yet also with tenderness and empathy. Although Georgiou preserves the principal morphology of his characters, their features are strictly limited and his paintings are unencumbered by any detail that might distract, focusing all attention on the situation, no matter how absurd. The scenarios he’s been painting are ones that he could just as well have conceived five or ten or fifteen years ago, but one couldn’t help seeing many of them as allegories of his country’s current predicament.

Press articles

2017: Art, Das Kunstmagazin, Apostolos Georgiou, Glücklic Her Melancholiker, by Sandra Danicke, April
2016: Liberation, Les recapés du quotidien d’Apostolos Georgiou, by Judicael Lavrador, 3 Oct.; Never miss a show.com, Apostolos Georgiou, Sept.; Time Out, Apostolos Georgiou, The Same Old Fucking Story, by Gabriel Coxhead.
2015: The Nation, Acropolis for Sale, Art, anxiety, and the Greek crisis, by Barry Schwabsky, 13 August.; Wall Street International, Lost Dreams, by Pantelis Arapinis, April.
2014: South likes: Apostolos Georgiou at Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul, by Klea Charitou, May.; The Magazine for Connoisseurs of Turkey, Apostolos Georgiou, Rodeo, May.; Hyperallergic, Artists Pick Artists: Apostolos Georgiou by Rob Colvin, 10 April.; Frieze Magazine, Issue 160, Apostolos Georgiou, as told to Amy Sherlock and collected by J. Higgie in “8 Painters on Painting,”, January-February.; Art Matters, The Art World Eyes a New Destination: Gwangju, South Korea, Culture BY Kevin McGarry, May 15.; ParisArt, Level one: Apostolos Georgiou, April.; GalleriesNow.net, Level one: Apostolos Georgiou, April.
2013: Hydra for Artists of the Mediterranean, A Thessalonique, une biennale puissance 8, by Pauline Simons.
2011: Contemporarty in Exhibition, Hide and seek, play and obey — Apostolos Georgiou paintings …, 23 Oct.
2005: Artforum, Review, Apostolos Georgiou, Galerie Xippas, by Barry Schwabsky, Sept.; Semaine, N°49, Apostolos Georgiou, le Repoussoir, by Dennis Zacharopoulos, May.
2001: Time Out, Review, Apostolos Gergiou by Katarina Gaxaropyaoy, 4-10 Feb.
1994: Artforum, Athens Gallery, Apostolos Georgiou.

Apostolos Georgiou
Apostolos Georgiou, Painting, 2011

Monographic Publication

Exhibition Apostolos Georgiou, Painting
National Museum of Contemporary Art, EMST, Athens
Texts by Anna Kafetsi, Daphné Vitali, Barry Schwabsky and Denys Zacharopoulos.
Publishing EMST, 2011