Mostly known for the construction of objects and unique jewelry that shaped an era of handcrafted design in the 80s, Takis Kavallieratos presents a series of surrealistic paintings depicting sculptural, human-like forms made of discarded materials and objects.
Having studied painting at the Athens Fine Arts School in the 1960s, in his view, it is painting that has always inspired his past creations and these works have been created to highlight that hidden personal identity. The works can be considered as surrealistic paintings; every composition aims at uncovering unconscious senses and notions that both the painter and the spectator involuntarily keep hidden and potentially share.
Each of Kavallieratos’ lifeless models evokes the sense of a sculptural composition created by worn materials that have lost their functional property. These materials are disorderly tumbled together in such a way that they create random irregular shapes and suggest the human form. More specifically, Kavallieratos creates realistic representations of lifeless objects, through which he aims at attributing the paradoxes of human nature. By investigating these compositions in a detailed manner, their random forms suggest humanlike models.
In this series, Takis Kavallieratos uses the combination of the senses evoked by a hyper-realistic landscape, the painterly qualities of a still-life composition and the sensibility of a portrait. The result is works that encourage a dynamic discourse between the properties and nature of materials, their function and use within the spectrum of time, in a way that breaths life to them and highlights their connections to human nature.
