The Cycle of One Day
Curator notes accompanying the exhibition at the Foyer of the Municipal Theatre — a reading of three years of work between paintings and constructions.
A Corfu studio, three years of work
The Corfian artist, Kostas Tombros, presents at the Foyer of the Municipal Theatre creations that are part of his last three years' artistic endeavour. The last few years of his residency on Corfu island have been, for Kostas Tombros, a more than creative period. He has established himself as one of the more interesting young artists, with a nearly inexhaustible creative production and presence, expressed through paintings, metal constructions, wood constructions and various other artistic mediums. Regardless of which plane of art he chooses to utilise in his creations, he manages to preserve not only his own personal aesthetics and thematic gallery, but in essence his true identity as it derives from his work.
In his workshop situated in an area called Potamos, he discovers and maps new artistic worlds. Through each and every creation new elements surface, and the artist does so without disorienting. This is achieved by his strong relation with his raw materials and his technical expertise. Kostas belongs to those few artists that prevail upon both in a unique way. They work as tools for his imagination, and for his communicative disposition which animates the creations.
Exhibition: "The Cycle of One Day"
In this current exhibition, titled "The Cycle of One Day", Kostas Tombros presents a series of eight paintings and a construction. The spectator is exposed to the emotional routes of a virtual day. By virtual day we can assume a circadian day, or the cycle of life, even one aspect of it. The artist reveals moments — some calm, others inspiring or seeking; moments of depletion and exhaustion. By doing so we, as the audience, are caught in a journey of self-discovery and assimilation with the countless aspects of life.
Kostas through his creations seeks the probable outcome of different moments. That outcome, as it is eloquently imprinted in the creations, comprises of the possibilities of a probable world. Which is that world? It is the one that derives from the artistic creation and the values it contains. The artist has decided to present in this current exhibition mainly paintings, to signify that although he is a multi-versed artist, primarily he is a painter.
The power of a painting, and how direct it is, makes of it the whole truth.
For Kostas Tombros painting is magical. He often says that it can deliver situations and incidents that are impossible to occur otherwise. This is juxtaposed with the construction in the same exhibition, which has to work with its surroundings. Painting creates that necessary environment in itself, an environment that works as a strong reference. This is where its magic resides, according to Kostas, in its ability to unlock emotions. The construction has its place in the surrounding space, and that makes its form specific. In a sense, the constructions create a safety feeling in the artist, who uses them as fixed, stable points, only to turn his back to the world and paint.
Structure and form
Viewing his work under such a lens, we see it developing on two axes: the structure and the form. There all his aesthetic endeavours are resolved. The structure of his work is its spine; colours are the carriers of the form; while the incidents that occur derive from the synthetic relation of structure and form. Under the artist's opinion, the intellectual stimuli of his paintings — the thematic expressions — are those elements that come and fill in the blank points of the creations.
The beauty of his work isn't found in a decorative aesthetic, but rather in a well-put coincidence of structure and form.
The power of the artistic genesis of Kostas Tombros consists in the incorporation of various techniques that he uses, that manage to convey his aesthetic idiosyncrasy. The artist calls this synthetic disposition "male structure". This way Kostas Tombros, through his artistic expression, preserves a quality which communicates coherently with his spontaneous character. He finds the way to give plastic solutions in his work — to enable them to be communicative while at the same time preserving their values. This is why his work is beautiful — truly beautiful.