Overview
Pilar Corrias Gallery is pleased to present the first UK solo show of New York based artist Gerasimos Floratos, bringing together new large scale paintings and works on paper.
A native New Yorker and local to Times Square, Floratos' practice toys with what it means to be a person on the outside-the other. The works lead us on a psycho-geographic tour of his version of the city hosted by a cast of anthropomorphised characters ranging from bunnies to skyscrapers. They are larger than life projections of Floratos' slouching alter egos, some more closely resembling him than others, but all sharing an uncanny cartoonish familiarity that belies their autobiographical nature.
Their construction is consistent in its inconsistency. Varying from pre-made aluminium stretchers to found timber, the structure upon which the canvas is fixed is as important as the imagery painted upon them. A thickly applied impasto of primary colours, mixed with detritus from the studio floor, adorns floppy canvases that often drape curtain-like from their stretchers, pointing conspicuously to the effort that went into their assemblage. Their sculptural qualities propel the pieces into the theatrical realm of props, pulling back the metaphorical curtain on the performance of being an artist.
Gerasimos Floratos (b. 1986 in New York) lives and works in New York. Forthcoming exhibitions: Big Town, Pilar Corrias Gallery, London. Recent solo exhibitions include: White Columns, New York City (2016); Times Square Paintings, Sorry We Are Closed, Brussels (2015). His work has been included in recent group shows at Salon 94, New York (2016); The Journal Inc, Brooklyn, NY (2016); Harper's Books, East Hampton, NY (2015); and Know More Games, NY (2015) among others.
