Georgios Nikas was born in Athens in 1973. During and after his school years, he took intensive courses in Fine Arts and Architectural Drawing. His course of study included “Industrial Product Design” at Birmingham Polytechnic and at the Athens Artistic Technological Group (A.K.T.O.). His teachers included Andreas Varotsos, Thanasis Moutsopoulos and Manos Stefanidis, among others.
In 1997 the Panhellenic Association of Decorators awarded him first prize for the best design idea in its first nationwide competition. He went on to complete his postgraduate studies, the “MA in Design” at Middlesex University in London, with distinction.
He lives in Athens, where he paints and also works on studies in Comics, Set Design, Interior Architecture and Industrial Product Design. Since 2001 he has held solo exhibitions and taken part in group painting exhibitions. His artistic work draws on Experimental, Impressionist, Expressionist, Abstract and Postmodern ideas, and on a deconstructive aesthetic.
As the artist himself stresses, he paints precisely because the very phase (and nature…) of creating a painting gives pleasure and satisfaction mainly while it is taking place, and not only once the result is complete. This is because every moment of creation contains all the qualities which, whether they characterise the work individually or as a whole, may be hidden from the final result. Moreover, the time spent observing and researching, even with the use of ultra-modern systems every day, life itself, the daily effort, the everyday, are what give the work its content, if not entirely then to a significant degree, before it is finally completed on the surface of the canvas…
The basis of his work is the depiction, or recovery, and creation of dreamlike, imaginary or real landscapes. During the process of creation the images alternate, and finally spring from a complex process of adding and removing elements. The hallmarks of this process are the dynamism and speed of every gesture. Structures are created and then fragmented. Repeating this method adds volume, depth and endless detail. The artist exploits the notion of chance as synonymous with freedom and also with honesty, within the limits dictated by each result, at each moment when a new element is added to (or removed from) the canvas. Thus, besides dynamism and speed, the time spent working during creation is also marked by restraint, concentration and observation.
His latest artistic work began with the classic poem “The Waste Land” by T. S. Eliot and is constantly evolving, presenting abstract ideas of tension and action, and elements of desolation, abandonment and chaos, partly natural or artificial, partly destroyed or artificially deconstructed, close to underground “Punk” and “Post-Punk” aesthetics. What emerges is a religiously apocalyptic ethos in the representation of an imaginary, dark, grim and deeper view of the image of the world and of the last civilisation, beyond the surface.
Major exhibitions:
7/12/2009-8/1/2010, “Wave!”, Art Space, Ios, Athens.
1/7-15/9/2008, “Non-Places”, “Galleria de Arte Gaudi”, Madrid.
7/6-17/6/2008, “Wave!”, A Tribute to the Blue of the Aegean, Athens Cultural Centre.
22-25/5/2008, “Non-Places”, “kunStart 08, Galleria de Arte Gaudi”, Bolzano.
7/3-31/6/2008, “Wave!”, Hive, Athens.
24/1-15/2/2008, “Non-Places”, “Galleria de Arte Gaudi”, Madrid.
24-28/1/2008, “Non-Places”, “DEARTE, Galleria de Arte Gaudi”, Madrid.
23/4-3/5/2007, “Non-Places”, Pantazidis Arts Centre, Athens.
