Alexis Akrithakis

Akrithakis Alexis
© Niki Maragou / The Estate of Alexis Akrithakis

He was born in 1939 in Athens, where he also died in 1994. During 1958-1960 he lived in Paris. He first exhibited his work in a solo show in 1961, in Athens. Throughout his life Akrithakis was connected in deep friendship with writers and poets, with whom he collaborated systematically. In 1968 he moved to Berlin after winning a scholarship from D.A.A.D. (The German Academic Exchange Service). The years 1967-1984 were spent living and working between Berlin and Athens where he was always inspired. During the 1970s he collaborated with the gallerist Alexander Iolas and his work was exhibited internationally. In 1984 he returned permanently to Greece. His body of work consists mainly of paintings, constructions and drawings, as well as artists’ books, furniture designs and scenography projects.

Works

Solo Exhibitions

2019

Alexis Akrithakis: On the Move. From the Zacharias G. Portalakis Art Collection Historical Museum of Crete Heraklion (curated by Denise-Chloe Alevizou, Angeliki Baltatzi, Despina Pertselaki)

2018

Alexis Akrithakis’s Stories Athens Municipality Arts Centre (Parko Eleftherias) Athens

2017

This Drawing Is Wrong Cask Gallery Larissa

2015

Mykonos Annex of the Fine Arts School of Athens Mykonos

2011

Kalfayan Galleries Thessaloniki

2010

Kalfayan Galleries Athens

2008

Kalfayan Galleries Athens

2006

A … as for Akrithakis Museum of Cycladic Art Athens

2005

Kalfayan Galleries Athens

2004

Portalakis Collection Athens

2003

Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin

1998

National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum Athens

1997

Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art) Thessaloniki

1993

Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center Athens

1992

Monsters Kreonidis Gallery Athens

1991

Magnifications Miraraki Art Gallery Athens

1990

Flowers for My Suicide Friends Gallery Zalokosta 7 (Gallery 7) Athens

1990

Epikentro Contemporary Art Center Patras

1989

Opsis Art Gallery Mykonos

1989

Ioni Gallery Kifissia

1988

Drawings Athens Art Gallery Athens

1987

Cirk – Collages Artio Gallery Athens

1986

Circus Artio Gallery Athens

1985

Kites Artio Gallery Athens

1984

The Polyphemus Hydroelectric Works Antinor Gallery Athens

1984

Institut Français d’Athènes Thessaloniki

1984

Epiloges Art Gallery Athens

1984

Artio Gallery Athens

1983

Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery (Bernier / Eliades Gallery) Athens

1981

Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery (Bernier / Eliades Gallery) Athens

1980

Ionia Gallery Athens

1980

Medusa Art Gallery Athens

1979

Collages ’79 Design Market Thessaloniki

1978

Trito Mati Gallery Athens

1978

Galerie Skulima Berlin

1977

Zita-Mi Art Gallery Thessaloniki

1977

Projects and Drawings Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery (Bernier / Eliades Gallery) Athens

1974

Galerie Tanit Munich

1973

Galleria Il Fauno Due Turin (in collaboration with Galleria Iolas-Galatea, Milan)

1973

Kochlias Art Gallery Thessaloniki

1973

Galleria Iolas-Galatea Milan

1973

Zoumboulakis Galleries Athens

1972

Galerie Niepel Düsseldorf

1972

Galleria Di Leone Venice

1971

Alexandre Iolas Galleries Geneva

1971

Zita-Mi Art Gallery Thessaloniki

1971

Zoumboulakis Galleries Athens (in collaboration with D.A.A.D. and Alexandre Iolas Galleries)

1970

Galerie Ubu Karlsruhe

1970

Decorative Arts Workshop Athens

1969

Galerie Mikro Berlin

1969

Galerie Junge Generation Hamburg

1968

Temperas and Inks Goethe Institute Athens (in collaboration with D.A.A.D.)

1967

Amalia Hotel Athens

1967

Galerie Hammer-Europa Center Berlin

1966

Clio Gallery Thessaloniki

1965

Institut Français d’Athènes Athens

1963

Veltsos Gallery Thessaloniki

1961

Municipality of Neo Heraklion, Cultural Centre Neo Heraklion

Press

From the mid-1960s, when it would be safe to say that you could now see in his works the Alexis Akrithakis that you recognise, Akrithakis entered the world of art from the front door, as a new proposition, fresh and disarmingly direct. In his case, the term “self-taught” does not mean unlucky, or isolated, or amateur, but determined. His determination, which is combined with daring, inquisitiveness and total honesty, reverberates across the entire range of a consistent, abundant, and pluralistic body of work, which extends over three decades and comes to an abrupt end with the artist’s untimely death in 1994. His artistic expression, unique, resists categorisation, often flirting with movements and terms such as pop art, abstract expressionism, geometrical abstraction, nouveau réalisme, art informel, the arte povera of his time, without really ever fitting in any of them, with his distinctive style branching out to different media and gestures. In an attempt to crudely divide his work, the entirety of his oeuvre can be divided in two major categories: small works on paper, and large works, which are generally paintings on canvas or wood and structures made, mostly, of wood. His works on paper, albeit smaller in size, preoccupied and were systematically produced by the artist, from the moment he recognised the artist within himself, which happened as early as his school years. From then onwards and until the end of his life, his characteristic style developed into countless sheets of paper, onto which spun the “tsiki-tsiki” and hearts, arrows, strange trees, labyrinths, suitcases, poisonous monsters, boats, mysterious figures and flowers appeared, in various combinations, along with doodles, secret alphabets and texts. His painting graduated from the first large gouache works on paper of the 1960s to oil and canvasses and, of course, the wooden constructions that maintained the characteristic full-frontal nature of his works. Direct, and facing the viewer head-on, the distinct shapes and brilliant colours of his works are placed either by brush and oil on paper, or by nail and acrylic on wood, and become engraved in memory, powerfully and permanently. The forms, like stories and like tragic subjects, exist in Akrithakis’s work in a profoundly existential interpretation of painting, far removed from any kind of academicism.

 

Alexios Papazacharias, 2019