Artereal Gallery - .Art Gallery Sydney Australia

Yioryios Papayioryiou

Materiality Υλικότητα

27 August - 10 September 2022

Artereal Gallery is excited to present Materiality Υλικότητα, an online solo exhibition showcasing an experimental new series of small yet powerful paintings by Yioryios Papayioryiou. Having shown his work since he graduated from the Australian National University’s School of Art in 2014, this will be Yioryios sixth solo exhibition at Artereal Gallery, illustrating the upward trajectory of an artist who is increasingly being recognised internationally for paintings and sculptures which draw on the shapes and silhouettes of architecture.

More than the sum of their parts, this latest series of paintings have been created by working with black cloth sandpaper executed in a palette of carbon black and burnt umber, contrasted with cadmium deep red. With a studio located in a warehouse in an area near the docks of Athens, Yioryios serendipitously stumbled across this new material which is typically used to sand ships… Inspired to incorporate this material into his practice, the artist works with this sandpaper – cutting, painting, layering and collaging it – to create a smaller series of works which echo the artist’s more typical large scale paintings in which he cuts into canvas. Mirroring these larger scale works, these smaller pieces embrace the legacy of abstract, hard-edge painting merging it with the long-standing tradition of utilising ready-made materials. The rawness and tactility of the sandpaper is still evident – with the base piece left untouched and in original condition – a contrast to the layered elements which betray the hand of the artist.

(To view and purchase artworks from this series, including pricing details,
scroll to the end of this online exhibition page).

Photographer: Sandra Semburg

Born in New Zealand, now based between Sydney, Australia and Athens, Greece. Yioryios Papayioryiou is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the boundaries between painting, sculpture and architecture. Graduating from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours in 2014, Yioryios has since held numerous solo exhibitions and been invited to participate in numerous group exhibitions at spaces such as Artereal Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair and Art Athena, as well as collaborations with Melbourne Art Fair.

Yioryios was recently commissioned to create a major public artwork as part of WestConnex Canal to Creek M5 Public Art Program. Launching in 2021, Canal to Creek is a diverse program of eighteen commissioned artworks that will help activate new and existing parklands between St Peters and Beverly Hills. Yioryios’ steel sculpture will be 3 metres high, 6 metres wide, and will be located in a permanent contemporary sculpture park in St Peters.
In 2015 and 2016 Yioryios was a finalist in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize and his work was featured in Artist Profile magazine and Habitus Living. In 2016, Yioryios was commissioned to create a large scale, site-specific sculpture for ANZ headquarters in Melbourne.

In 2017 he was commissioned to create a site specific sculpture for the Crown Casino on the Gold Coast. In 2018 Yioryios was invited to participate in Monochrome: Empty and Full at Margaret Lawrence Gallery at the University of Melbourne. In May 2018 Yioryios completed his first international residency in association with the Athens School of Art in Athens, Greece.

Since 2019 Yioryios has worked on numerous major public art projects including a large scale sculpture which can now be seen at PS4 in Parramatta.

Yioryios’ work is held in significant collections such as the Justin House Art Museum collection, the ANZ collection, the Pricewaterhouse Cooper collection, the Crown Casino collection, the ELLIOT EYES COLLECTION and the Australian Embassy in Paris collection.

All prices are in Euros and will be converted to AUD at the time of sale. Framing and shipping costs not included. Please contact the gallery for assistance with framing and shipping. Prices are correct at the time of publication but may be subject to change without notice. For sales enquiries email: info@artereal.com.au