Tables and Floors. The meeting of two visual artists with a common reference on one of the most popular subjects of painting, that of the still life.
Sotos Zachariadis and Maria Panagiotou present together at the Ochra Blue Artspace. Shapes, flatness, strong colors and accentuated contours characterize the new body of work of Sotos Zachariadis. Still life tables dominate in elliptical fashion with a pervasive feeling of loneliness, isolation ―the part of a window that opens to the sea intensifies this feeling. The painter’s attempt to include writing on the surface of his works is obvious, providing at times a symbolic-religious dimension. And at the same time, to “tell” short personal stories in the aftermath of the gloomy external condition and reality, proposing an experiential-confessional element.
The surrounding poetic atmosphere in the works of Maria Panagiotou is enhanced by the design and color qualities of her painting. In her most recent compositions, her theme focuses on flowers presented on fragments of old floors. These are compositions that are imposed by the sensitivity of their semblance and the subtlety and the accuracy of their color tones. The impression is immediate and charming, alive and romantic. The painter, with the strong description and depiction of the specific, is led to a different personal perception and interpretation, revealing what is hidden behind the surface and depicting a vital relationship with the world and its familiar environment, relative to mental and emotional states.
Yiannis Bolis, Art Historian
