ATHENS.- The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries are presenting a retrospective exhibition of renowned Greek Artist Philip Tsiaras in Athens. “Tsiaras, Poseidon and the Hyperbolic Horse” is a curated selection of 30 years of artworks inspired by horses. The exhibition at The Blender Gallery runs until 27th July, 2024. The solo exhibition in Athens follows Tsiaras’s solo exhibition ’TOPOLOGIES 1990-2023 at Varvara Roza Galleries in London, where his paintings were also presented at Sotheby’s.
Philip Tsiaras is an international artist of Greek origin who lives and works in New York City, where his work can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tsiaras is a multi-dimensional artist working in a variety of medium including painting, photography, ceramic, glass and bronze. He has had more than 80 one-person exhibitions during a prolific career.
The Greek God, Poseidon — the original “mover and shaker” of earthquakes and tsunamis, trident of the seas — is also credited with the mythological creation of the Horse. The lineage of the Horse through Poseidon’s escapades begot Arion, the fastest of fabled stallions, and most notably, the winged Pegasus, born from the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. Philip Tsiaras follows in the footsteps of mythmakers creating a universe of hyper-imagined horses that borders on a personal equinomania — some horses are born of the sea, Mediterranean dragons, fire breathers, sensual sea horses that biomorph, idiosyncratic long-legged colts drenched in gold —transmitting adulation, fantasy, lust, and the freshness of a pulsating vision. In fact, in Tsiaras, one has the feeling that he is entranced in producing hagiographic horses to please the very Gods themselves.
Ironically, the series originally began in Mexico in 1980, where Tsiaras both rode and photographed horses in the vast Sonoran desert. Somehow the ethos of the horse merged with his alter ego, mixing the scorched desert with the spiritual mysticism of the indigenous Shamans. Young Tsiaras traversed miles in the Sonoran, naked on horse-back, photographing himself in an idealistic attempt to challenge that brutal, psychedelic landscape. It was an obsessive beginning that catalyzed him from photography to painting. Thus, the Tsiaras “Horse Journey” began.
Tsiaras uses all media imaginable to explore the Horse — photography, painting, ceramic, bronze and glass — each venue a new way of evolving his mantra. The Horses are therefore an organic, almost automatic evolution of Tsiaras as an artist. The artworks are informed by an endless interaction with Modernist art, and coupled with Tsiaras’ innate interest in the primitive, mythological and spiritual nature of his beloved subject.
Tsiaras has been the recipient of many national prizes including: The American Academy Award for Poetry, the Thomas Watson Fellowship, two National Endowment Grants for the Arts (NEA), nomination for the Blickle Stiftung Photography Prize, Germany, Gold Medal Award “Civiltà dell’Acqua”, Venice, Art & Letters Award, Greek Foreign Ministry, Lifetime Cultural Achievement Award, the Alexandrion Foundation, New York. His works are widely collected in prominent museums and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 20 books and catalogs have been attributed to his work.
