Nikolas Tsorpatzidis
Janus
2020

About the Item

Janus in the Roman god of beginnings and endings, of time and duality. He always has two faces looking simultaneously to the past and the future. Nikola’s Janus encapsulates the meaning of the whole series. The artist adopts ‘’primitive’’ or ancient forms to talk about the issues of our time. Like Janus he looks at the events of the past to warn or make informed decisions about the future. He respects the inherent duality that exists in nature and deep space. Morphological, Janus is one step further than Cyclops. They both stem from the same root, the protocycladic figurine. However, in Janus, Nikolas handles the ancient concept with greater confidence, delving further into abstraction. Nikola’s minimalistic sculptures are usually made of bronze, wood or marble and range from unique big size outdoor pieces, to small ones in limited editions. His oeuvre encompasses human figures, mythology, and fantasy. Figures inspired by Greek history or extraterrestrial myths, usually coated with various patinas as an experiment of understanding how the same work may be perceived by the viewer in different ways. According to the artist: "It is the constantly present challenges, when I harness hard materials, that push me to explore new methods and innovative techniques, in my effort to realize my ideas in small, medium and large scale". Nikolas is deeply concerned about the position of the human race in a future defined by machine learning and our co-existence with androids and cyborgs. His work is, therefore, an expression of his beliefs and feelings for the future of humanity. His sculptures are also influenced by the countries from the four continents in which he has lived in throughout his life. "Wherever I travel, I always absorb and process how people interact with their world, especially in places outside the Western canon of living and thinking", says the artist. That is why, apart from history and mythology, elements from indigenous peoples are often incorporated in his artworks.

Creator:

Nikolas Tsorpatzidis (1961, Greek)

Creation Year:

2020

Dimensions:

Height: 24.81 in (63 cm)Width: 10.24 in (26 cm)Depth: 7.09 in (18 cm)

Medium:

Bronze

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century