Vasilis Avramidis Biography
Vasilis Avramidis uses oil on canvas to work with the idea of false perceptions in painting language. Gestural brushwork, painted objects and people are translated as pieces of land, which then become an ideal terrain for smaller scale landscapes, scenes and narratives. Avramidis explores the ability of painting language to speak about itself, while at the same time it incorporates worlds, which refer to external situations. Avramidis draws inspiration from video game mechanics, where game play can dominate over narrative and vice versa, resulting in barely manageable challenges which maintain the pleasure factor.
Avramidis is interested in locations which defy easy interpretation, fiction as a channel to address real-life concerns, the physicality of paint, 17th Century Dutch Still Life painting, Hollywood films, expressionistic distortion, science fiction, parody, mythology, and the process of moss, vegetation and land taking over disused objects or structures.
Following a BA in Fine Art at Aristotle University, Thessaloniki in 2004, Vasilis Avramidis graduated from Central Saint Martins, London with an MA in Fine Art in 2011. Avramidis has exhibited widely, including two solo exhibitions in Thessaloniki in 2009 and 2007, and group exhibitions and art fairs in London, Shenyang, Athens, Nicosia, Bratislava, Piestany, Crete, Berlin and Belgrade. In 2011 Avramidis was shortlisted for the Salon Art Prize.