Stavros Ioannou, painting of the abyss, collections G. Kostopoulou, Sissy Vamvaka
Stavros’s Ioannou significance lies to the combination of the dynamic expressionistic gesture and the deep chromatic lyricism. Politicallised, though, not a propagandist of any political idea, he, constantly exists in an artistic way of manner, between the possibilities that chaos avatar offers to him, but, also, through the need for this elementary structure of the picture’s existence.
For this reason and, only, his mature artworks resemble to the skeletons of a fantasy structure, like a tower deck of cards. From the early academic still lives to his last explosive landscapes of Aegina, Ioannou remains a unique colorist painter, not of the skin, but of the soul.
Manos Stefanidis, Associate Professor of EKPA