KATERINA PARRI
An on-site installation of painted bricks and tiles surrounded by a series of one hundred mixed media drawings
Zoumboulakis Gallery proudly presents the latest solo exhibition by Jannis Psychopedis, titled “Palermo. People and Ruins,” running from January 16 to February 8, 2025.
This captivating exhibition features an on-site installation composed of painted bricks and tiles, creating a dialogue between structure and art. Surrounding the installation is a collection of one hundred mixed media drawings, offering a multifaceted exploration of the interplay between people and the remnants of the past.
As the artist himself writes: “On the occasion of a recent trip to Magna Grazia and the ruins of its Sicilian civilisations, and later walking along the hospitable Greek coasts of the Peloponnese, far from the paranoia of the constraints of the big city, we also discovered the small treasures that the sea generously offers. Where it brings to the shore beautiful stones, pebbles, broken wood, shells, worn plastic, rusty iron, eaten marble. But above all, it brings the lightest of all, the things that are most easily pushed out by the waves and fill the beaches. It’s the broken bricks and tiles, the small corrupted forms, the fragments of tiles that have lost their original shapes, years in the water. Scattered in the sand, with their strange facets, these “beehives” of broken bricks and crushed pieces, where time has melted away their form, seek an imaginary, elliptical microcosm of a paradoxical micro-sculpture of volumes, plastic rhythms and curves of warm tones.
Fragments of old buildings, once parts of proud structures, stand as remnants of human craftsmanship—humble or grand habitats that bore witness to another era. These pieces, relics of a distant or recent past, have weathered the passage of time, leaving behind ruins that carry the echoes of their former lives. They wash ashore in the present, urging our imagination to reconstruct their forgotten histories: the alien lives they sheltered, the human hands that built them, and the dreams and hopes they once embodied.
Now, these shattered remnants—memories of another existence—seek transformation through visual expression. They aspire to become symbolic “valley temples,” imagined dwellings, or primal new settlements. Through this metamorphosis, they bear witness to a renewed hope, a testament to life’s enduring spirit and its potential to persist and flourish.
New and unconventional brick constructions emerge as vibrant “beehives of life,” bursting with color and energy. These creations transform small, rebuilt ruins into lively, revived entities, defiantly standing against the harshness of brutal times and the ominous shadows of monochrome, dark portents.”
A few words about the artist
Born in Athens in 1945. Studied printmaking on a scholarship at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1963-1968). He completed his postgraduate studies in painting (1970-1976) at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He then settled in Germany as a guest of the Artists’ Programme of the City of West Berlin. In 1994 he was appointed full professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Athens Art Group A and the Art Group of the Art Review magazine. He was also a founding member of the “New Greek Realists” group (1971-1973) and of the Centre for Visual Arts (1974-1976). Since 1966 he has presented his work in solo and group exhibitions in major European cities, the USA and Japan.
