Edouard Sacaillan
Spectators
Past
4 December 2008 – 24 January 2009
11 Haritos Street, Kolonaki
On Thursday, 4 December 2008, between 20:00 and 22:00, Kalfayan Galleries, 43 Proxenou Koromila, Thessaloniki, are presenting the opening of the exhibition titled “Spectators” with new work by Edouard Sacaillan.
The exhibition at the Kalfayan Galleries is basically the first in which the artist has focused exclusively on the presentation of works from the “Spectator” series. The “Spectators” is a common theme in the iconography of Sacaillan, who often explores the psychology of the observer and the effect of the spectacle on the individual as he is watching it. At the same time, his “spectators” embody the existential anxiety of contemporary man.
Combining elements of abstract art with realism, Sacaillan focuses on his protagonists, isolating them from their surroundings. The human figures do not interact between themselves and at the same time they seem to suffocate in the constricted space. This feeling, emanating from the regimentation of the individual, is intensified by the free use of color and tight compositions and the choice of colors that express the psychological condition of the spectators.
The iconography of social alienation that characterizes Sacaillan’s works expresses his own feelings about society. The audiences of Sacaillan are somber, enigmatic, formal. Their faces reflect the main theme that runs through his work: the isolation and loneliness of contemporary man.
Artists
Edouard Sacaillan
Edouard Sacaillan (b. Thessaloniki, 1957) lives and works in Athens and Paris. He studied at the Athens School of Fine arts (1976-81, studios of Dimitris Mytaras and Yiannis Moralis) and at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1984-87, studio of Leonardo Cremonini). Awards: Painting Award at the 18th Biennale of Alexandra (1994), the Lefranc-Bourgeois National Award for Painting (Paris, 1992) and the Prix de l’ Académie de Médecine de France (1987). Selected solo exhibitions include: Affordable Art Fair (Galerie Mιnksy), New York (2011); “Edouard Sacaillan: The Artist’s Eye”, Frissiras Museum, Athens (2009); “Spectators”, Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki (2008); Vienna Art Fair (Kalfayan Galleries, 2008); “Utopias of Paradise”, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens (2007); “Landscapes and People”, Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Athens (2006); “Dialogues 2005”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki; “Spaces with People”, Foundation of Thracian Art & Tradition in collaboration with Kalfayan Galleries (2005) and Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki (2005); Galerie Lefor Openo, Paris (2002). Selected group shows include: “Gold”, (guest curator: Thomas Zaunschirm), Imperial Belvedere Palace Museum, Vienna (2012); “White & Black”, Frissiras Museum, Athens (2011), “The Naked Truth”, Frissiras Museum, Athens (2010); “The Perspective of Time – Pictorial Histories: Paintings from the Sotiris Felios Collection”, Benaki Museum, Piraeus Annex, Athens (2009); “35 Contemporary Greek Artists on Democracy”, Zappeion Exhibition Hall, Athens (2009); “Art Contemporain d’ Arménie”, Orangerie du Luxembourg, Musée d’ Art Moderne d’ Arménie , Paris (2007); “Visual Arts in Greece II, Artistic Innovation. Semiotics of its Conditions in the New Era”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2007) and “Voyageur sans boussole: Sur les traces de Dubuffet”, Museum of Modern Art, Centre G. Pompidou, Paris (2002).
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