On a hill in Kypseli, life and art meet

THE Hill art project is a new space for exhibitions and events in Kypseli. The aim of this new initiative is to highlight the works of the Greek Abstract Expressionist Panos Sarafianou and the pioneer ceramicist Mary Hatjinikolitwo great Greek artists who came together in life and in Art and contributed decisively to the formation of the physiognomy of modern Greek art.

THE “Hill” by Panos Sarafianos it would be a free space (a real hill), and at the same time an artistic movement – action that Sarafianos was preparing together with an open group of young artists – his students, as a space of real freedom and creation. On the Hill, artists and non-artists alike would co-create with respect for nature to contribute to the great miracle of life with their own little miracle.

The founders of the Lofos art project, George and Dimitris Sarafianos, state: “55 years since the death of the painter and teacher Panos Sarafianos and 3 years since the death of the ceramist Mary Hadjinikolis-Sarafianos, we have prepared an exhibition and events space, at 39 Velvendou Street in Kypseli, where the permanent exhibition of the collection of works will be set up and there will be periodic exhibitions, book presentations, discussions, happenings and creative activities, screenings with an interdisciplinary nature and oriented towards the creation of networks of international cultural exchanges, which will also be displayed on the website of the Hill.

Our goal is to create an environment where the presentation of works of art will be accompanied by discussions about art, about the conditions of production and reception of the works, an environment that will give triggers for inspiration and creation. Because every person has the possibility of artistic expression and reception. And in the end, we all express ourselves and co-create when we participate in collective activities.”

A hill that will meet the same thing. Life and art. The great happening of beauty and humanity. Panos Sarafianos, in the opposite and regressive progress, put us in front of a hill. And he always teaches us to climb the hill.

First Periodic Group Exhibition: “Panos Sarafianos, Politics of Care: Inspiring Three Generations of Painting”

This year marks 55 years since the death of the great Greek abstract expressionist artist Panos Sarafianos and the Lofos art project is honoring him with its first periodic exhibition “Panos Sarafianos, Politics of Care: Inspiring Three Generations of Painting.”

The co-curator Fai Tzanetoulakou, Dr. of Art History states: “The entire painting adventure, from the conquest of the form to its final deconstruction, evolves in Sarafiano’s works. The primordial reason people feel the need to make art, the anguish, ecstasy and catharsis that flows from this deep conceptual process is there. In his later works, characterized by a straight sign of ebony glue and applied with explosively energetic lines, Sarafianos fertilizes the coming generations of visual artists who express themselves through the medium of a dynamic painting that exists to release the Idea.

The exhibition presents his works Panos Sarafianouhis painter-students, but also younger contemporary painters who interact with him stylistically and conceptually, and will be strengthened by the development of activities, such as conferences, workshops, discussions, screenings, with the aim of developing knowledge of the evolution of contemporary painting art, familiarizing with the landscape today and spreading the experience to a wider audience, encouraging creative synergies.

Who is Panos Sarafianos (1919-1968)

He was born in Lamia. He took his first steps in art next to his iconographer father. He studied at ASKT. The stages of his personal expression from representational painting and gradually to abstract gestural, are distinguished for their originality, for their absolute character, for their penetration into the essence, for their shocking power. He found himself on a parallel path aligned with the international avant-garde movements, both with his painting and with Lofos, an artistic movement – action, which he prepared with an open group of young artists – his students, as a space of real freedom and creation. A gifted visionary, confessor, animator, communicator, he gave a new ethos and dimension to the function of the artist-teacher.

Who is Mary Hadjinikoli-Sarafianou (1928-2020)

He studied painting at the workshop of Panos Sarafianos and then at ASKT. She continued her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He studied ceramics not as an applied art, as the local culture understood it, but as an essential creative-expressive medium with enormous technical possibilities. Precisely these possibilities covered an innate need of hers to seek and create texture and matter, which she considered a prerequisite for the consolidation of a form and the shaping of a concept. The pursuit that characterizes her work in recent years is the search for light. Light that cuts through the darkness, that penetrates and breaks through the intervening solid masses. Light message, light hope.