EVERYDAY UTOPIA
14 November – 7 January
Opening 13 November. 6pm-9pm.
Gallery hours:
Tuesday-Saturday. 12pm-6:30pm.
think.21 Contemporary Gallery
Rue du Mail.21
Brussels.1050
Belgium
http://www.think21gallery.com
Think.21 is pleased to present “Everyday Utopia”, an exhibition curated by Marina Fokidis of works by acclaimed artists Andreas Angelidakis, Miltos Manetas and Angelo Plessas. The exhibition will feature paintings, web animations, photographs and architectural structures by the three Greek-born artists.
Often in synergy and/or individually Andreas Angelidakis, Miltos Manetas and Angelo Plessas approach digital technology and most specifically the Internet as a natural evolution of the perception of daily life: an extension of their working and living space in which the actual passage from real to virtual, and vice versa, is seamless, ‘means nothing in particular’, and happens constantly back and forth in a day. Using different media such as architecture, painting and websites –respectively- their work refers much more to the physicality with which the digital culture adopted the ‘Web’ and less to the notion of the ostentatious promises encompassed in the ‘digital revolution’ as supposed by former generations. In-between the internet and real life, the bridging of the imaginary with the real seem to be the core of their artistic practice while their ‘laisser faire’ manner towards this fact remains the fundamental quality of their work even in a world where social -networking in sites such as facebook or myspace is a kind of given.
Andreas Angelidakis is an architect working at the intersection of digital culture and architectural production. In these parallel realities, Angelidakis treats the internet as a place where ideas are born and get tested and where new social behaviours define the way our society will develop in years to come.
Manetas has produced oil paintings of wires, cables and computer hardware. His canvases demonstrate our fascination with technological objects and their consistent use in our everyday lives. The artist’s interest on the virtual universe has led him to create websites, videos and performances after videogames.
Angelo Plessas creates simple interactive animated drawings that exist on the internet in their own address that work as their tittles too. Their themes involve feminity or strange portraits that become subtly personal. These internet pieces often «cover» the real world as material objects such as murals, installations, collage drawings and sculptures.
Their work has been exhibited at Deitch Projetcts, New York, Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, Sketch Gallery, London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Magasin Centre of Contemporary Art, Grenoble, Le Consortium Centre of Contemporary Art, Dijon, Deste Foundation, Athens, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo.
