24 – 27 June 2010.
Opening Thursday 24 June, 4 – 7 pm.
Fabrikken for Kunst og Design
Sundholmsvej 46, 2300 Copenhagen, Denmark.
A project by Panos Balomenos.
Panos Balomenos has been a visual artist in residence at Fabrikken for Kunst og Design in Copenhagen for two months, in May and June 2010.
During his residency the artist has painted a series of 11 portraits of Her Majesty the Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. These 11 paintings among side with a piece of sculpture will be on display at the project space of Fabrikken for Kunst og Design between the 24th and the 27th of June.
The series of paintings features the queen placed in the middle of several different Danish surroundings, urban landscapes and social events totally embraced by the Danish population. With this project the artist’s intention is to use the representatives of Institutions, customs, and popular folk culture and through the process of metamorphosis to bring them closer to our modest human needs. According to his statement art has a magical ability to travel far beyond reality and towards an absolutely poetic dimension with the use of transformation after a long process of demythologization. When referring to the concept of poetic dimension in visual arts he intends any idea or final work, which has the power to transform people’s quotidian life into a spiritual experience.
Panos Balomenos was born in Athens, Greece in 1976 and since 2004 he has been living and working in Helsinki, Finland.
He has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan in Italy, the State School of Fine Arts of Frankfurt (Staedelschule) in Germany and the Academy of Fine arts of Helsinki (Kuvataideakatemia) in Finland. His work has been shown both in solo and group shows in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Greece and Denmark.
His work consists of paintings, sculptures, installations and dresses, which are specifically thought and executed for the performative purposes of his projects.
In his art practice he explores the subject of human portraiture. The use of human body functions as a point of reference and example to talk about human existence in universal means both on a physical and on a mental level.