VISUAL ARTIST ALEXANDROS EMMANOUILIDIS
Alexandros
Emmanouilidis
Capturing not only what is seen, but the invisible, metaphysical side of things. Each image an autonomous universe. The human element always present, even when all it has left is its suggestive imprint.
"He drives the viewer to seek and achieve emotional connection, transcending the limiting frameworks of space and time. His work is characterized by eroticism and inwardness, dark dynamic figures bordering the edge between reality and fantasy."
He lives and works in Athens. He always has a camera with him, whether working on a specific project or not, because art can be found in everyday life and it is his way of continuously staying creative. It never stops. His first individual exhibition, entitled RAW, took place in Athens in 2017. Since then his work has been exhibited in galleries across Greece, the UK and the United States, and he has collaborated with UNESCO on a visual action framework in two consecutive years.
The work he is best known for explores the abstract and form-focused: eroticism and inwardness, dark dynamic figures that border the edge between reality and fantasy. The human element is somehow always present in his images, even when all it has left is its suggestive imprint. Like the reflected trees in the image above: inverted, almost painted, a landscape that exists only in water and in the act of looking at it.
I can still remember the day when, still a kid, I discovered the work of Richard Avedon. Also INTERVIEW magazine, the 4AD record label and all the artworks in the record sleeves.
I always have a camera with me, whether I'm working on a specific project or not, because art can be found in everyday life. It is also my way of continuously staying creative. It never stops.
Through the lockdown I finished my project Les Fleurs Du Mal, which is a deeply personal work based on The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire.
Being true to my needs mentally and physically.
"Each image constitutes an autonomous universe telling a story that includes many readings. The human element is somehow always present, even when all it has left is its suggestive imprint."
On the work of Alexandros EmmanouilidisLes Fleurs Du Mal
After Baudelaire
Finished during lockdown. A deeply personal work based on The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire's collection explored beauty in the dark, the erotic, the morally transgressive, and the spiritually ambiguous: exactly the territory Emmanouilidis has always worked in. The pandemic gave him the time to complete it.
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More photography and visual art from the Antakly Projects archive.
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