ARTIST STATEMENT: Over the millennia, Greece, as an idea, has served as an inspiration and a reference point; a lens through which to view our world. It inhabits my mind and my heart, and in many ways no matter the geographic distance, I’ve never left it. Greece is always on my emotional radar.
Classically trained in Europe and shaped by the cultural and historical gravitas fractured over time by war and foreign occupation, my heritage fuels a deeply rooted interest in ancient practices and their keystone impact on modern western culture, and how iconography can be subverted without a deeper understanding of its roots. My work is impacted by economic shadows, generational trauma, ethnic displacement and abandonment, military dictatorships, war and the environmental exploitations that have darkened our universe.
I hope my work conveys a sense of confidence and optimism for the future, consistent with the earth’s legacy as an intellectual enterprise that has been in business for thousands of years and that I will continue to contribute to the discussion of pertinent issues surrounding the visual arts, culture, and politics.
These factors are the feeding drivers of my Travels in BLOCKTIME, a conceptual framework where space and time are the coalescing agents that allow my creative work to exist instantaneously regardless of when and where it is made. In Travels in BLOCKTIME the past, present and future are all part of a single moment, interacting and informing one another where the resulting energy, mass, gravity – possibly even time and space – are not linear.
Conventional time, as a linear and orderly method for cataloging events, leaves important interactions unexplored while Travels in BLOCKTIME shines a new insight on how time operates even at the minuscule level. This paradigm shift of time merges my earlier artworks with those recently created, where they may be combined with additional commercially produced objects and forms.
These assemblages examine human history's indelible impact and influence on our modern psyche, culture and physical environments. In these small three dimensional power objects, fragments from the past are represented by vintage plastic toys, religious memorabilia and discarded bits of hardware, are combined with sculptures I have created over a lifetime. Once individually purposeful but now relegated to junk drawers, sculpture shelves, and dime store bargain bins, they signify the refuge of our culture now assigned to new roles in new narratives. The osmosis of memories and current events summons disparate elements to engage and speak anew - suggesting unexpected encounters wherein the images evoke the meaning.
This new and more expansive creative pallet has led to the development of the three dimensional assemblage series Spooky Actions at a Distance - Descendent Dialogues where the present contains also the past and the future.
MISSION STATEMENT: The intention of my work is to put the viewer in the position to see. The finely tuned concept and crafted image can sift and modify the way the viewer perceives, questions, and understands. Today we’re bombarded daily with billions of images coming from every direction but most of them fade away without, little, to no resonance. My aim is to create images that require us to take a closer look and spend more time with an artwork that has the capacity to leave behind a mark, a question, a fingerprint of meaning.
Each of the images shown above are transitional works configured from a single source: ICARUS TRANSITIONING, 2014 Acrylic on 80 wood and metal panels
BELOW: A timelapse video illustrates the private installation of Alex's painting, ODYSSEY, 2008-2010, 92' x 90", Acrylic on 80 wood panels
