Sake x Kapopoulos “Street Love” | Athens 2024
Once again, Ioannis Sake Karampetsos brings the art born on the streets of Athens to Kapopoulos Fine Arts Gallery on Skoufa Street 5 in Kolonaki.
Having already conquered metropolises of global art abroad such as Miami and London, this time his solo exhibition will be in his hometown, Athens, starting on Thursday, April 4th (18:00-22:00) with the eloquent title “StreetLove.”
The purpose of the exhibition is to bring the pulse, intensity, aesthetics, and truth of urban lifestyle into an art space, without losing or distorting its characteristics. Sake is not interested in always being well-mannered. Raised on the streets, where he created his first graffiti on the city walls, he maintains the raw character of street art, even when creating in his studio:
“I try to convey the atmosphere of graffiti, the life, and art of the street into the gallery. Even when I create in my workshop, I have the intensity, the turmoil, the adrenaline that I have when painting on the street,” says Sake himself. “I even try to recreate the conditions of the street in the studio, to make the surfaces rougher, my lines wilder, faster, and the colours immediately catch the eye. I don’t have the tranquillity of the indoor studio condition. It’s like I’m still on the street…”
In this exhibition, Sake presents paintings, sculptures, or collages using materials such as concrete, resins, wood, spray, neon, markers, acrylics, etc., in dynamic compositions with his completely personal, unique character. The goddess of Aphrodite emerges pure and untouched by contemporary expressions, through concrete, a reference and tribute to his father, who was a builder and passed away recently.
He also uses symbols, the Gods of the Pantheon or heroes of mythology, creating unique art crimes. Heracles wears Batman’s mask, Michael Jordan’s shoe, Hermes’s wings. He also doesn’t hesitate to fragment and recompose in his own way, intervening artistically with techniques used in modern art and urban culture, in copies of eternal symbols, unique sculptures, such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a magnificent Apollo, not out of disrespect, but as he says: “the art of the classical era is unique and unparalleled. Such perfect statues have never been made again, nor will they ever be. By fragmenting them, I want to show that they still retain their great power and radiance, even when they become pieces. I’m not interested in creating something flawless or perfect. That would be boring. I often resort to the vandalism of my works, or use neon to add more intensity to the viewer.”
Exhibition opening: April 4th, 2024, from 18:00 to 22:00.
Duration of the exhibition: April 4th-18th, 2024.
Opening hours: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday: 10:00 – 17:30.
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 10:00 – 20:30.
Skoufa 5, Kolonaki, Athens, 10673, tel. 210 3637652
[email protected]