Ioannis Lassithiotakis

Captivity

Ioannis Lassithiotakis aims for an abstract universality: He uses the simplest visual materials because he wants to broach the universal subjects he is dealing with while addressing the widest possible audience. Probably as an act of resistance to the dominant verbose culture that continuously attacks us with moving and spectacular images and information, the artist chooses to speak laconically, with austere means, with pictures that do not assault the eye and which, on first viewing, seem naked, static, but nevertheless involve dynamism and rich symbolism. Calling on us to regain the patience of observation and the ability to understand the simple relations between the basic building blocks of the world, at least in the ways that artistic creation tries to convey them, he defends the value and importance of the work of painting against the inflation of cheap and fast image.