Bill Balaskas
Remains of a Summer Bliss
September 15–October 15, 2016
Opening: September 15, 8–10pm
Kalfayan Galleries
11 Haritos Street
10675 Athens
Greece
Curator: Lanfranco Aceti
Kalfayan Galleries are pleased to announce the solo exhibition Remains of a Summer Bliss of Greek-born, London-based artist Bill Balaskas.
In his second solo exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries, Bill Balaskas will present a new body of work that will invite the audience to experience the end of summer as a metaphor for the present. Remaining faithful to his ideologically charged, yet playful artistic language, which has received wide international acclaim in recent years, Balaskas interrogates what might constitute “bliss” in the current historical conjuncture.
Using a variety of media, including neon, photography, sound and fabric, the artist will investigate what remains from an old world that appears to be dying, and what remains to be done in order to build a new one. Like items abandoned on a beach by holidaymakers, the works in the exhibition will be testaments to this complex, or even contradictory amalgamation. Together they will signal the enduring volatility of a globalized environment in which any direction taken cannot guarantee the reaching of the desired destination anymore. In contradistinction to the dominant apolitical culture which proclaims that “ignorance is bliss,” Balaskas’s works make us confront reality in order to reflect on the origins of the uncertainty that we experience.
The curator of the exhibition, Lanfranco Aceti, notes: “Balaskas is one of the most exciting politically and socially engaged artists working in Europe today. Behind the humorous surface of many of his works, we can locate multiple references and layers of meaning. Those references reveal the violence exerted on our societies by the crisis of the political and economic systems that we have created, or perverted. Balaskas looks for the constituent elements of this crisis, in order to produce a space for civic introspection—a condition that we so urgently need in Europe and around the world.”
Concurrently with his solo exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries, works by Bill Balaskas can also be viewed at MACBA, Barcelona, where the artist presents a new installation commissioned by the museum, titled Anarchy Near the UK (exhibition: PUNK. Its traces in contemporary art); Fundació Palma Espai d’Art–Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca (exhibition: De regreso a la isla); A Plus A Gallery, Venice (exhibition: Good Night, And Good Luck); and in Boston, where Balaskas will stage a large-scale public performance in collaboration with Boston University on September 30 (ArtWeek Boston 2016). The performance will feature Balaskas’s widely publicized installation The market will save us (2013), and it is curated by Lanfranco Aceti.
Bill Balaskas (b. 1983, Thessaloniki, Greece) lives and works in London, United Kingdom. He has studied at the Royal College of Art (PhD & MA), the University for the Creative Arts (BA) and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (BSc). His works have been widely exhibited internationally, in more than 110 solo and group exhibitions. He has received nominations for numerous awards, including the 2013 AUDI Art Award for the most innovative young artist. In 2012, he represented the United Kingdom in the London Cultural Olympiad and in Maribor, the European Capital of Culture, with his video Parthenon Rising. Furthermore, his works have been presented in curated sections at Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Cologne and Art Brussels, amongst others. In recent years, Balaskas has given talks about his work at the University of Oxford, the 11th Sharjah Biennial, Tate Liverpool, Goldsmiths University, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Central Saint Martins and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Recent exhibitions include: MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; ARTIUM Basque Museum Center of Contemporary Art, Vitoria; Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens (2016); CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid; Les Chiroux, Liege; State of Concept, Athens (2015); BOZAR, Brussels; John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; Transmediale, Berlin; Le CENTQUATRE, Paris; ΤΕΝΤ, Rotterdam; Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland (2014); 4th Thessaloniki Biennale, Greece; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; Nordic House, Reykjavik (2013). Bill Balaskas is represented by Kalfayan Galleries, Athens – Thessaloniki.