Aris Kalaizis is a German-Greek painter.

Early life

Aris Kalaizis grew up, as the son of a Greek political immigrants (Greek civil war

Greek Civil War

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

), in Leipzig. He began studying

Student

A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...

 art at the "Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst" in 1992 under Prof. Arno Rink and his former assistant Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch

Neo Rauch is a German artist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align...

, and graduated with distinction in 1997. In his early life he was influenced by Spanish baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera and British painter Francis Bacon (artist). Subsequently studying to be a master student under Arno Rink, between 1997 and 2000. His greatest individual show, retrospective of the ten preceding years, took place in the Marburger Art Hall in 2005 under the title Uncertain Pursuits. In 2007 he presented his first USA solo show in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. To a broader audience he became known in 2010 by his participation in the Venice Biennale

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...

 (12.Mostra Internazionale di Architettura). The most unusual show The double View presented Kalaizis at the Schloßmuseum Greiz in 2011. In the same year he presented first time in Asia on the 4th Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 Triennial in China at the Guangdong-Art-Museum.

His paintings are in several collections all over the world. Kalaizis is associated with the New Leipzig School

New Leipzig School

The term New Leipzig School refers to a movement in modern German painting. The usage and origins of this term are debated.The "old" Leipzig School was a term used by art journalists which had became established by some time no later than 1977, and the involvement of Werner Tübke, Wolfgang...

. He has lived as a self-employed painter since 2000 in Leipzig.

Works

Kalaizis designs his paintings, mostly elicited from dreams, with the help of several photographs. Once he has his internal conception, he looks for a situation in reality which could best represent his imagination. When found, he takes a photograph of this place.
This photo then serves as a base for the backdrop. Superfluous areas are later omitted in the studio so that surfaces and forms appear as abstract as possible. And with that, begins the process of imagination.
As learned from conversations with Kalaizis, he nails photography over his bed. What follows is a meditative, contemplative process in which he considers what could happen with the scene which is before him. In this picture development process he does not produce a single sketch. Kalaizis writes, however, a script

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

.
Within this everything is meticulously described: Composition, light dramaturgy, clothes needed, as well as the required posture of his figures. Once the 'film script' is completed, he takes additional pictures of the things he requires: trees, cars etc.

The figures, predominantly friends or acquaintances of the artist are invited to his studio and subsequently photographed. Before he proceeds with the task of painting, he begins by pinning the, on average 6 – 12, photographs on his easel and finishes the planning process.
What arises is a picture world which does not actually exist. This approach distinguishes Kalaizis from many photo realists since they do not challenge a new reality.
The sometimes surreal scenes which then appear are developed from the ideas which Kalaizis recorded in the film script. As these paintings are neither real nor surreal, the American art historian Carol Strickland coined the term 'Sottorealism' with respect to Kalaizis' work.
The term was first used in her 2006 essay „ Aris Kalaizis – Detour as a route to unity and order". "Sotto" means "underneath" or "below" and suggests a certain buried secrecy hidden below the surface.
His recent works with his use of an evening light atmosphere appear a little somber; an ever present calamity lying below the surface. Something violent is almost always present. A crime is never seen to be committed; however Kalaizis' works often tend to represent a certain threat.
Although Kalaizis' pictures are clearly "formulated" or rather "performed", they permit all sorts of interpretations and always remain mysterious. Some objects and figures (daughter, wife, friends etc.) recur or even duplicate themselves even in single pictures and suggests a overlapping general history.

Awards/honors

• 1997 State scholarship from the German State of Saxony
• 2001 Art prize from the "Volks and Raiffeisenbank"
• 2005 USA (Columbus, OH) foreign scholarship from the Ministry of Science and Art.
• 2007 ISCP-Residency, New York City, USA

Literature

• Of Gradual Reconciliation, catalogue 1997
• Athletik und Sinnmonarchie, catalogue, 2000
• Brancard catalogue, 2003
• Uncertain Pursuits, catalogue, 2005
• Rubbacord, catalogue, 2006
• Making Sky, monograph with catalogue raisonné, 2009
• The Double View, catalogue at the Schloßmuseum Greiz, 2011
• The Fourth Guangzhou Triennial catalogue. Guangdong Museum of Art (China), Guangzhou, 2011

External links

• Official Website of Aris Kalaizis
• Aris Kalaizis at Maerzgalerie
• "I Have nothing to Say, Perhaps that is why I Paint" at Kreuzer-Magazine, March 2009