Andy Giannakakis
Dark Developments
20.04. – 19.06.2021
Park View / Paul Soto
Dinner on the Levee, 2020-2021
Oil on wood panel
24 x 22 inches
61 x 56 cm
AG1060/P
LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS are proud to announce Dark Developments, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles based artist Andy Giannakakis. This is the artist’s first exhibition in Europe, which is organized by Park View / Paul Soto. Dark Developments will open on Tuesday, April 20 from 2 to 7pm and will remain on view until Saturday, June 19, 2021. The address of the gallery is 23 Avenue Jef Lambeaux, just one block away from the city hall of Saint-Gilles.
Andy Giannakakis’s abstract paintings address illusion, in particular a painting’s insistence to suggest and to reference. The artist works on each painting over a number of months. Giannakakis starts and stops and starts each painting again at various points. This ongoing process reflects a variety of mental states and modes of address — each moment inevitably possesses a different mindedness. With each new engagement, Giannakakis works to shape a painting away from likeness and towards the non-representational again.
This process of revision is carried out through the artist’s layering technique. Matte oil paints are thinly applied and removed over time. A pictorial depth develops while the cumulative marks exist physically with a certain flatness. This material quality is elaborated by the heterogeneous surfaces of his wooden grounds, which add
another layer of visual information. The works convey a diaphanous quality of movement, where the painting appears to shape-shift. This effect opens up interpretive space while simultaneously foreclosing on it, reflecting the activity of making itself.
Andy Giannakakis was born in 1988 and lives and works in Los Angeles. His works have been exhibited at Park View / Paul Soto, Los Angeles; Ortuzar Projects for Condo, New York; La Maison de Rendez-Vous, Brussels; Tif
Sigfrids, Athens; and Atlanta Contemporary, among other venues. His work has been written about in Los Angeles Times and by Art Basel.
images credits : Isabelle Arthuis