By Giorgos Mylonas

23/06/2021

Regular visitors to Naxos are well acquainted with the Bazeos Tower in the island’s hinterland. The imposing monument, a former monastery dating back to the early 17th century, has served for more than two decades as a hub of artistic and cultural activity. This summer, the tower—founded with great devotion to the island by Marios Vazeos—hosts a tribute to Nikos Moschos.

Highly popular among Greek art lovers, Moschos is one of the few younger Greek painters whose work has been successfully showcased abroad. Having secured a strong presence in prestigious private collections (such as those of Dimitris Copelouzos, Antonis and Azia Hajiioannou, Giorgos Vogiatzoglou, and Sotiris Felios), his name also features in leading international collections (including Schirm/Sammlung-Schirm in Berlin, PTE Fine Arts in New York, Bernard Cheong in Singapore, and A. Krausser in Dubai).

For the exhibition Animated Connotations, works by Moschos have been brought to Naxos from private collections and the Zoumboulakis Gallery, along with two sculptures—the first he has ever created. As art historian Francesco Piazza observes:
“If in contemporary painting we are witnessing a return to representation at the expense of both abstract and conceptual art, we owe it to artists like Nikos Moschos, who shape their vision through a new representational idiom—unpredictable, and charged with dramatic and mature symbolism.”

The artist’s figurative language is neither new nor inexplicable. From the very beginning, Moschos displayed remarkable drawing skills that set him apart from his generation. Raised in a household steeped in art—his father was an icon painter—he could easily have followed a more conventional path as a portraitist, catering to commercial demand. Many successful painters of the 1980s had already paved the way with both market success and popularity. Moschos, however, chose his own course, avoiding the pitfalls of commodification and easy formulas.

From early on, he trusted his instincts—and was right to do so. He deliberately distorted forms, seeking to make them his own. He integrated them into symbolic spaces, overturning the logic of representation through a kind of “magical realism.” Thus, while adopting a figurative idiom, his work is strongly filtered through a personal and recognizable style.

Born in 1979 in Heraklion, Crete, Nikos Moschos studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and now lives in Athens. His paintings combine human limbs, mechanical parts, architectural fragments, plant and animal forms, ancient statues, and numerous indeterminate elements, orchestrated into chaotic yet haunting tableaux. Pop aesthetics intersect with realist painting and blend with psychedelic motifs, resulting in compositions reminiscent of advertising imagery.

Curator: Marios Vazeos
Organized by: AION Cultural Organization – Naxos Festival 2021
Venue: Bazeos Tower
Duration: June 27 – September 26, 2021
Opening Hours: Daily except Mondays, 10:00–17:00