DIMITRIS FOUTRIS

Opening: 04/12/16 Duration: 04/12/2024-25/-01/2025

DIMITRIS FOUTRIS

Reversed Framework: Landscapes Beyond Form

Opening: Thursday, December 5 th , 18:00 – 21:00

Exhibition duration: 05.12.24 – 25.01.25

Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center presents Dimitris Foutris’ fifth solo exhibition. The exhibition Reversed Framework: Landscapes Beyond Form, focuses on the interaction between architecture and nature, drawing on visual elements and structural principles from byzantine iconography and traditional Japanese art to examine the fragile balance between human intervention and the natural world.

Foutris’ works draw inspiration from the elements of the natural environment, such as mountains, clouds, and landscapes, which hold a significant place in both byzantine and Japanese art. His compositions feature prominent architectural elements—walls, frames, and layers of space—allowing viewers to experience nature both as presence and as abstraction. Through these motifs, the artist creates a dialogue that addresses the constant tension and harmony between the constructed forms of the human/constructed environment and the organic world.

At the core of Foutris’ work is the concept of "inverted perspective”, a defining characteristic of Byzantine art, where architectural and natural elements seem to extend outwards toward the viewer instead of converging towards the horizon, as opposed to the conventional linear perspective. This perspective simultaneously directs the viewer’s gaze to points within the composition that deserve emphasis, cultivating a dynamic sense of spatial interaction with depicted elements or figures.

Similarly, in the case of traditional Japanese painting, depth is suggested through flat color surfaces, bold outlines, strong shapes and patterns, expansive backgrounds, and often asymmetrical placements between figure and space, rather than through shading or vanishing points. By combining and reinterpreting these techniques, Foutris creates works the viewer’s conventional spatial perception, pushing the boundaries of how we experience the two- dimensional qualities of the painted surface.

This exhibition bridges these two historically rich traditions, which, despite their cultural and temporal distance, share similar approaches to the representation of space, rejecting Western emphasis on perspective and realism in favor of a more symbolic and flattened depiction. Foutris draws on these traditions to explore in his own way the fragile nature of ecosystems, suggesting that the depiction of nature reflects our perception of it in everyday life. Additionally, in this series of works, he uses traditional materials such as ink, watercolor, pencil, and carbon on handmade paper, honoring both traditional techniques and the need for sustainable, eco-friendly materials.

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Born in Athens. He lives and works in Athens, and Ios island, Greece. He studied Fine Arts at the Aristotelean University Of Thessaloniki from 1991-1996, with tutor Makis Theofylaktopoulos. In 1997 he continued his post graduate studies (MA in Fine Art, Painting) at The University Of East London (UEL), where he also obtained his Professional Doctorate In Fine Arts (Drawing and the Digital Era – DigitalDrawing And The Physicality Of The Reproduction) From 1998-2003, with tutor Grenville Davey and the support of the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) from Greece. Dimitris Foutris started as a painter developing a keen interest in the appropriation and implementation of new and traditional media, as well as modern methods of processing digital images and data. Incorporating the visual language of different cultural areas, such as architecture, byzantine art, music. He uses painting, photography, video, sound, text, poetry and installations in order to create ad hoc fields of complex multi layered stories.

His latest series of drawings presentedin his solo show with works on handmade paper, was carried out with \ the development of a research project between Byzantine art and traditional Japanese painting for the production of new works, with a State grant he received from the Ministry of Culture in 2021. His works are included in private and public collections in Greeceand he has participated in solo and group
exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

Webpage: http://www.dimitrisfoutris.info

Category
2024, exhibitions, Past Exhibitions, Solo Exhibitions