Video for Belgrade Biennale & Venice Auction, as requested by Belgrade Cultural Association
Video Presentation for Belgrade Biennale & Venice Auction 2023
Elements of abstract expressionism in the painting of Ioannis Kaiserlis
“Ioannis Kaiserlis KaiZer is a painter with a very specific painting style, and it is almost difficult to fit him or bring him closer to a certain painting direction. This wonderful artist was born in 1974 in Veria, and now lives and creates in Athens. As someone who has been successfully engaged in construction for many years, observing the interior and exterior design, over time he will learn new dimensions of the artistic being, and penetrate into the recesses of the artistic property, thus discovering the desire to express himself through sculpture and painting as media. He is a participant in several international exhibitions such as: Vienna Art Summer 2021. (Public Artists gallery) and Lisbona Contemporanea 2021. (Atelier Natalia Gromicho gallery), as well as Qatar (Doha) 2022. And of course he is famous as an internationally recognized artist with a truly extensive artistic oeuvre.
As a painter, he is more interesting to art theorists, and to those who want to observe this extremely substantial, rich, imaginative artist who is hyperproductive because he constantly transforms his ideas into form, expression, play of light, through rich voluminousness, in a deeper and more layered way. And thus, not sparing himself through his painterly expression, we meet an artist who richly testifies with his paintings of actually two directions to which he belongs, namely: abstract expressionism and symbolism. His ingenious interpretability connected with abstract expressionism is actually a painter’s testimony through which in a subtle way with color and form (still form, although it is almost a redundant word within this direction) he achieves an interaction with painters such as: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.
He unconsciously takes us back to the fifties of the 20th century through his astonishing painting skills, walking us through the studios of the above-mentioned painters, while skillfully introducing us to his world of subtly woven symbolism. He leads you with his image to dance, again as part of the theater, and introduces you to an interactive relationship (again a theatrical form), and then offers participation (the same form) without allowing you to “exit” his image. Here we clearly see an artist who is constantly questioning himself and looking for innovative solutions, as if at some source of new ski colors, new palettes, he reveals a new and different world to the observer of his work, and thus maybe just encourages him to creates, and builds the creative process.
This is how this brave artist opened a new door of art with his artistic expression and expression, calling us to be both his critics and his students, because he constantly creates and builds, and thus selflessly delights us through his creativity.”
Ana Novaković Art historian and curator
Participation in “Gestures and Symbolism” Exhibition 2023 – Luminous EyeGallery, Athens, Greece 28/4-6/5
KaiZer-Ιωάννης Καϊσερλής: “Θέλω τα έργα μου να έχουν διαρκή αντίκτυπο στις ζωές των ανθρώπων και να εμπνεύουν προβληματισμό…”
“Το θέμα της συγκεκριμένης έκθεσης “Χειρονομία & Συμβολισμός” με ενέπνευσε γιατί η γλώσσα των χειρονομιών και του συμβολισμού είναι Παγκόσμια και Διαχρονική…”
WAVE OF VENETIAN LIFE PART III - OIL & ACRYLIC - 150Χ100 CM - 14.03.2020
INTERPRETATION OF WINTER - OIL & ACRYLIC 150Χ100 CM - 28.05.2020
See George Orphanidis’ Art Review for Work 1 in Article 4 & Marta Lock’s Art Review for Work 2 in Article 8
Participation in Masters of Berlin Prize 2023 – Pinna Gallery, Germany 13-27 May
Participation in International Action Art Exhibition Dubai 02-05/04/2023
Photo Gallery
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People
Ioannis Kaizerlis, art as a point of connection between different experiences and cultures The artwork Ioannis Kaizerlis will present at the important event being held in Qatar belongs to the artist's latest production. Entitled People, it represents not only the story of the events that have marked his artistic career over the last year but also a glimpse of the future that he wants to pursue by continuing to work towards the realisation of his dream, that is, to keep on generating the art that makes him so happy and fulfilled, and to show his paintings around the world. The background of the canvas is decidedly abstract expressionist, albeit delicate and shaded to give greater prominence to the images that form the centre of the canvas; tt seems to be the ideal terrain for dialogue that Kaiserlis entrusts to the main actors, portrayed in a style halfway between Surrealism and Graffitism, a starting point for expressing a universal message, a wish for interconnection between peoples and cultures, a canvas where the faces seem to be united in the indefiniteness of multiplicity, in the polyhedricity of points of view. The Greek artist, who was born in the town of Veria and currently lives in Athens, came to his artistic expression after a long career in the building trade, both as a builder following in his father's footsteps and as an interior designer, an experience that has enabled him to experiment and verify how fundamental art is in interacting with living environments and the people who live in them. The emotions awakened by a wall enriched by a painting are amplified and radiated throughout the rest of the room, and are therefore essential to instil a more pleasant atmosphere and harmony in the entire surrounding space.This was the driving force that prompted him to measure himself against those canvases, against that creative world that so fascinated and conquered him in his profession as a decorator that he wanted to generate the sensations he experienced himself. He has always been passionate about art and has visited many museums during his travels abroad, spontaneously approaching Abstractionism in general and Abstract Expressionism in particular, a style of painting that is decidedly akin to his impulsive, exuberant and overwhelming nature, as well as his love of expressive freedom; yes, because Ioannis Kaizerlis does not manage to remain within a defined strand, but feels the need to range, to move from Dripping to Colour Field, from Informal to Lyrical Abstractionism, without ever neglecting the emotional element, the meaning that emerges from the images and colours chosen, which he often keeps returning to, transforming oil and acrylic into a material element, in relief that seems to be the stratification of his inner feeling, of that bursting instinct, followed immediately by the need for reflection and meditation that distinguishes his character. Even the tones are in tune with the mood of the creative moment, so as to become the interpreters of a thought, a consideration or more simply of a juncture observed or distractedly seen; thus the darker atmospheres can alternate with brighter and more vivacious ones without apparent continuity while becoming, precisely because of the expressive freedom essential to Kaizerlis, his main characteristic. The surrealist trait, inspired by the visual immediacy and simplicity of Joan Mirò, emerges from that placing symbols and details, such as eyes and hands, decontextualising them from the general image and giving them a different sense from what they would appear at first glance; the Graffiti Style, on the other hand, is inspired by the rashed and at times impetuous voice of Jean-Michel Basquiat, especially in the distorted definition of faces, as if they were in front of deforming mirrors that allow their real essence to emerge, in which the aesthetic connection is left out and the interiority in its immediacy is highlighted.The capacity for understanding that comes from openness to others, Kaizerlis seems to suggest with his visual narration, allows us to look beyond appearances, beyond the limits of race, religion and culture, which are a barrier only if we want them to be, while what should instead emerge is a more amused, more surprised approach to those we meet on the journey. The colours chosen by the artist are lively, intense, earthy rather than marine, perhaps because it is in the background that he leaves the impalpability and mobility of the water and sky, emphasising how much of man's movement, wandering and life encountered takes place in the earth element, that world in which walking, meeting, drinking or eating together is an important and fundamental step towards generating interaction, confrontation and therefore dialogue.
Emirates
The paintings, which reveal the meaningful relationship of the divided colored main forms by filling in smaller forms, are based on the artist's own inner reality from the outside to the inside, like a game. At first glance, it can be thought that each main form area completes the composition with different colors and smaller elements that fill the space. However, although these areas that make up the forms take their place in the artist's fiction, they are painting elements on their own, independent from the targeted composition. Sometimes they surprise the viewer as complex, sometimes minimal paintings. This libertarian situation dramatically affects the visual perception of the viewer. Thus, the same viewer sees that the artist reflects his spiritual structure on his canvas in a bold way. The painter often throws aside a calculated aesthetic arrangement in his paintings. Because that aesthetic order is already fully present in its own spiritual interpretation, interiority and emotional accumulation of pure enthusiasm. That is, paintings often contain extreme emotional fluctuations with unexpected outbursts in the face of the measurable stability of geometry.
Αs the work progresses, the forms in his works are transformed into more abstract and comprehensive expressions with different meanings apart from their simple meaning and form, not as they appear to the audience. Although the art audience does not know Kaizer Ioannis Kaiserlis and his past and present life with which he interacts, by looking at the artist's paintings, they can feel that his works are shaped by the memories of his past life. This is fascinating for both the painter and the viewer. The language of dominant forms and intertwined colored and smaller complementary forms or elements used by Kaiserlis in his works seems to be encrypted. The artist dissolves and obscures his forms as if in a mystery he wants the audience to solve. Because, while he is moving his brush through the main form areas, the additions he makes remove the form from the perception of the symbol it carries and reconstructs it with its unexpected dynamics. However, when the painting is finished, what we see in the compositional integrity is a strong instinct to exist. Finally, in his paintings, the energy that creates an impressive force towards the viewer is thus released.
It would not be wrong to think that the painter deals with the intertwined formal and informal forms, lines, and their meaning (symbol), ratio and color relations with each other from the framework he sees. At the same time, the artist makes his paintings feel the sociological and psychological contradictions created by his private life, which he lives in, and the near and far geography to which this life is connected with its sins and merits. The forms and colors that make up their compositions have a heavy traffic. When examining the reasons for the crucial effect of this movement, it is seen that in each of the forms, a different “moment” that the artist lived before is recreated in his paintings from a psychological point of view. This surreal or abstract feature in paintings is sociological enough to tell a sometimes dramatic and sometimes entertaining story or multiple stories that reflect the sum of interconnected or different "moments" and change in each painting, when the effects of the subconscious are left aside.
However, unless attention is paid to these sociological clues, they either remain in the background of the fiction or are overlooked. Kaiserlis tries to remain impartial in his paintings and show the viewer from both sides of the window the world he is impressed with, with its good and bad sides. This world is the artist's own world, who creates his own special language with abstract forms and elements from which concrete results can be drawn. Thus, the consistent relationship he establishes between the concrete reality of the outside world he is influenced by and the abstract forms that reflect this reality from the inside to the outside, are successfully handled by the artist in his works. As a result; artist Kaizer Ioannis Kaiserlis continues to successfully study elements such as color, form and element in the spaces he constructs freely, beyond their real meanings, from a psychological and sometimes sociological point of view, and to create a unique art style.
Pinar Bingol
Plastic Arts Writer/Artist