THEO CHRONIS
Theo Chronis is a Greek visual artist dividing his time between Greece and the United Kingdom. He graduated from Athens School of Fine Arts in 2006 and since then he has been developing his contemporary painting practice and working as an arts instructor and digital artist. He has shown his work in two solo shows and participated in numerous group shows in Greece, Europe and the US. His artworks are part of European private collections. In 2011 he co-founded the art teaching platform Zographi in Athens and in 2015 he was a resident artist at the “League Residency at Vyt” in New York.
NEW ORIGINALS
Chronis considers himself a figurative painter with an understanding of the limitations and loopholes of figuration and of painting in general. “New originals” are a series of mixed media paintings where he attempts to explore the boundaries of representation and abstraction, of drawing and painting, of color and shading. Every painting in these series starts in a completely abstract, random and loose way of just making meaningless marks onto the painting surface, losing control and allowing for accidents to happen using splashes, dripping, violent line drawing, painting with the eyes closed or with his off hand, so to say. Generally, in these beginning stages everything is acceptable. From that point on a long process of trying to “see” or “discover” an image suggested by this “mess” begins. Usually this image involves a body or more and this is a way for the artist to keep the painting from becoming too abstract or too decorative. The resulting picture and the composition are strictly not pre conceived and thus surprising to him as well. This is always the product of a slow process of looking at the paint, defining large forms, breaking down other forms that are too defined, looking again and so on. In the artists own words: “When the painting has a special kind of presence, that it feels like it’s a world someone might want to inhabit or is already inhabited by “things” or “bodies”, I just stop. The painting is done.” Chronis’ influences range from ancient Chinese sumi-e painting to the great western academic tradition where his own art training belongs, to modernism, to abstract expressionism to many, many post war and contemporary painters. These influences appear in this series as three aspects usually blended together so as to seem inseparable: the figurative, the gestural and the compositorial. The artist works in a way that none of these completely dominates a painting but instead they add to the whole and complement each other.
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS AND AWARDS
2015 Ruth Katzman Grant and Residency, Sparkill, NY Vytlacil Campus of The Art Students League of New York
2002-2004 Greek State Scholarship Foundation Grant, Athens, Greece
SOLO SHOWS
2014 ‘New Originals’ Alexandros Gallery, Peyki, Athens, Greece
2011 ‘The Space Between’ Pragma.gr, Athens, Greece
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2016 ‘’Μεταμόρφωσις:Beyond Shapes’’,ArtMoorHouse, London,UK
2015 “Dialogue between the artist and the spectator”, Malou Art Gallery, Athens
2011 ‘Totally unknown’ Zappeion Hall, Athens, Greece
2010 ‘The human form in art’ Technopolis multispace, Athens
2009 ‘Small is Smart’ Artower Agora gallery, Athens
2008 ‘ASFA Graduates of 2006’ Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens
2007 ‘Conversing with Rembrandt’ De Haagse Kunstkring gallery The Hague, The Netherlands
PRESS
2012 Nikolas Zois: “The Offspring of the arts”. Article in‘TA NEA’ newspaper.
EDUCATION
2001-2006 Athens School of Fine Arts
Degree in visual arts (painting) under Tassos Christakis