Theodoros Raftopoulos

Since the Germinations X Biennale (1998-99), Raftopoulos’s sensual and instinctive pictures based on symmetric or kaleidoscopic arrangements showed his compositional skill and asserted Manipulation as the basis of his work.

The artist uses the body (often his own) as a playground, pulling bits of its inside to the surface, mixing it with various substances, turning its fragments into balanced compositions.

Recently, Raftopoulos develops this basic principle of manipulation towards another dimension, more related to space and time.

This new step in Raftopoulos’s work is influenced by the recent use of video and digital pictures: he re-arranges components (established as a kind of vocabulary) and pictures (digital prints, photos, drawings, lightscreens), that reoccur in different combinations and installations.

The whole body of work becomes the set of hybrid situations, questionning relations such as physical and mental, intimacy and history, inside and outside, energy and desire...

In this context of permanent evolution, the recurrent and essential green element operates as a link between human, animal & plant, playing with its natural/artificial quality, sometimes recovering the body, sometimes acting as an abstract background.

Unlimited Contemporary Art