10/06/2023
Michalis Katzourakis' "Windows 2000", curated by Christoforos Marinos, at Roma Gallery, Athens. “Light boxes and digital prints depicting storefronts undergoing renovation. The storefronts, which the artist photographed in Athens in the period 1998-2000, are covered with water colors so that passers-by cannot see the work being carried out inside. The painted surface is not completely covered: it bears marks, erased parts, drips, and gestural traces. Due to the reflection of light on the glass, the interior space and the cityscape merge. A power pole can be faintly seen in one of the light boxes, while in others various cardboard boxes can be clearly seen inside the display case. The main feature of these works is the intense spectrality, but also an unexpected painterliness. It is a ready-made painting which is formed completely randomly and unplanned - and this is what arouses the interest of the artist to record and appropriate it. In the diptych "Windows MEXX" Katzourakis captures the same image in different shades of purple. The twin "windows" are covered by undulating forms so perfectly executed that you'd think they'd come from the hand of a skilled abstract painter. And here the light, more subtle compared to the three large light boxes, enhances the painterly dimension of the image by enlivening the colors. On the other hand, prints on photographic paper and kappa mount may not emit light but act as opaque mirrors that reflect and assimilate at the same time. In front of these strange "windows" we become part of the image we are looking at. "7 Windows", combining verticality and seriality, constitute an unbroken unity. They are marginal images, because they hide one space and at the same time reveal another. But just as extreme - at the turn of the century - is the urban wandering from which "Windows 2000" originates. This exhibition confirms the important place of photography in the painting work of a pioneer of post-war abstract art.”
