Panayiotis Kalorkoti

Panayiotis Kalorkoti
Born (1957-04-11) 11 April 1957
Ayios Amvrossios, Cyprus
Nationality British
Education

Newcastle upon Tyne University 1976-80

Royal College of Art, London 1982-85
Known for Painting, Printmaking
Website www.kalorkoti.com

Panayiotis Kalorkoti (born 11 April 1957, Cyprus) is a contemporary British artist. As well as painting in acrylics and watercolour he does drawings and also experimented with etchings, screenprints, lithographs and monotypes. He tends to produce a series of paintings for a specific exhibition. He works within specific terms of reference and his work has been described as an entirely modern iconography. His work is figurative and features bright colour, economic use of line and makes use of collage, whilst referring to conceptualism, abstraction and modernism. Most of the work tends to be in groups and it is in the serial works that the viewer will sense a certain questioning and re-focusing.[1] Of his artistic approach, Andrew Lambirth wrote:

“ Kalorkoti tirelessly returns to an idea to probe it further, and has developed the good Modernist habit of taking things to a logical conclusion, by way of thorough serial exploration. Panayiotis Kalorkoti aims to question and challenge our assumptions, to keep us on the qui vive, and heighten our awareness of our relationship to the world. ”

Early life

Kalorkoti was born in Cyprus in 1957 and moved to the United Kingdom in 1966. He became a British citizen in 1974. He studied at Newcastle upon Tyne University (1976–80) and the Royal College of Art, London (1982–85).[1] Of his student days, Frank Whitford wrote:

“ There was a time when he wandered around the College with two small sketchbooks, asking almost everyone he bumped into to draw a portrait of Kalorkoti in one of the books while he made one of his victim in the other. Almost no-one refused, and the result is a unique and valuable document of the faces of the celebrated and the unknown, from David Hockney to fellow students, who had crossed his path. ”

Background

Kalorkoti has held exhibitions in Britain and abroad which include the Imperial War Museum, London, National Portrait Gallery, London, and National Garden Festival, Gateshead. He has worked on major public projects, such as Grizedale Arts, Cumbria and has been artist in residence for the Leeds Playhouse and has won fellowships, scholarships and commissions. He has exhibited regularly in a number of public galleries and museums.[2][3][4] Writing for a catalogue in 2007 John Russell Taylor noted that:

“ Kalorkoti, like all real artists, is a clear case of skill directing instinct. The beginning is the instinct, that something from below or outside the conscious mind which tells the conscious artist to paint in reds or blues, images of dogs or buildings or young women, orders that he cannot but obey. ”

Artistic career

Kalorkoti has been a part-time visiting lecturer at a number of art schools and won a Netherlands Government Scholarship (1986–87); was Bartlett Fellow in the Visual Arts at Newcastle University (1988); was artist in residence at Cleveland County (1992); and has had a number of other artist in residence.[5] Kalorkoti has had many commissions and the British Council;[6] Imperial War Museum; Laing Art Gallery; Hatton Gallery; and Stedelijk Museum have his work in their collection. Of his work, Norbert Lynton summarizes:

“ It is rare for art to be so directly about life. Not about lifestyles, about shocks or seductions, but about the life we experience as involuntary participants. What links all Kalorkoti’s art is solitude, his and ours. ”

Projects

Most of his work tends to be in groups or portfolios and it is in the serial works the viewer will find Kalorkoti’s artistic direction and ethos. Some projects such as Berlin Project, Homage to Goya, The Fathers of Modern Art,[6] West Yorkshire Playhouse Residency, Four Nations Capitals. Of the Four Nations Capitals Charles Saumarez Smith wrote:

“ I have known the work of Panayiotis Kalorkoti for a long time, ever since I first met him when I was Director of the National Portrait Gallery and very much respect the integrity with which he documents different aspects, and some of the stranger characteristics, of our national life. ”

Publications

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions

References

  1. 1 2 Panayiotis Kalorkoti
  2. ↑ The female form by Tamzin Lewis, The Journal
  3. ↑ An Artist 'Who Paints in Poetry' EXHIBITION: Kalorkoti by Judith Bumpus, Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales)
  4. ↑ Shedding Light on the Face of Art by Lucy Bell, Coventry Evening Telegraph
  5. ↑ ISSUU - Artist Biography by David Buckman, Goldmark Gallery – publishing
  6. 1 2 >British Council
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