Sorcha Dallas

Ilias Papailiakis exhibits courtesy of and as part of and exchange with The Breeder, Athens. Kate Davis completes the exchange with a solo exhibition at The Breeder, 13th October–12th November 2005.

Papailiakis’ baroquely-inspired paintings are subdued in tone but often violent in subject matter, evoking cruel and hedonistic lifestyles of plutocratic cultures. Rendered in oil on irregular wooden boards, they assemble motifs derived from counter-reformation Flemish still lives, psychological Spanish portraits and 18th century genre painting. The classical modernist conflict of mind versus matter is humanized through living objects, a miasmic repertoire of leering mythological figures and preyed-upon creatures whose death throes bear the marks of an underlying metaphorical struggle. These images of hunting scenes and biblical-style narratives are redolent with psychosexual symbolism, but eerily suggestive renderings and temperate colour schemes allow them a genuinely unsettling ambiguity.

Laurence Figgis, 2005

Papailiakis was born in Crete in 1970 and gained a BA in Fine Art from Athens School of Fine Art in 1996. Recent exhibitions include: Liste Art Fair, Basel (2005); a solo show at Vilma Gold, London (2004); 49th Venice Biennale, Greek Pavilion (2001) with forthcoming exhibitions at The Breeder, Athens and Upstairs Berlin, Berlin. Papailiakis lives and works in Athens