Peter Calaboyias' Windows to The Aegean Sea - The Best from Greece

Polished bronze Sculptures and Brilliantly Colored Paintings. In this exhibit, at the National Hellenic Museum, Chicago, USA, Calaboyias has materialized an abstract vision of the sea through “open windows” to The Aegean Sea. The sculptures and paintings on display are a statement of simplicity as experienced on the island, influenced through sense and memory.

Calaboyias (born 1940) emerged in the early 1970s as a sculptor whose distinctive visual style was informed by his approach to issues of history and culture. His family fled Ikaria during the German occupation of World War II, spending time in Turkey, Cairo, Mombasa, and the Belgian Congo before arriving in the United States, where the family settled in Pennsylvania. As a young artist, Calaboyias was influenced by the burgeoning Minimalist art movement in post-World War II America, through which he developed his own unique interpretations. Classicism strongly pervades his work, his sculptures are inspired by the stories and sculptures of ancient civilizations – the steles (funeral markers), obelisks and bronze sculptures whose monumental scale has passed through millennia. All of these impressions cogently manifest in eclectic pieces that act as a bridge between cultures; the idyllic island of Ikaria where he was born, and his experiences in the changing art scene in post-war America.

With this exhibit, Calaboyias has shortened the distance between impression and subject, approaching his subjects without overly intellectualizing the artistic process. Calaboyias says, “I sense the works in the exhibit to have been carried by the Aegean winds, the sea, and washed in the strong light of the sun.” Mythological and history tracings are introduced into the creative process, as in “Boy Falling,” a reference to the story of Icarus, or “Phillip Thorakas,” a reimagining of the breastplate and shield of King Philip of Macedonia, father of Alexander the Great.

Calaboyias also introduces a series of large oil paintings developed in Ikaria whose vivid colors reflect the clarity and light of the Mediterranean. Building forms are treated as three-dimensional geometric shapes that break horizontal lines of landscape, tilting or intruding on space, squeezing or expanding areas to reveal the larger landscape behind. Smaller studies in acrylic develop themes of view and memory through “parathiro” (windows) that frame the ubiquitous blue of the Aegean Sea.

As an artist, Calaboyias produces a wide range of minimalist bronze forms through a lost wax casting technique that he modified in order to produce larger works. These large pieces, often set in site-specific, urban locations, are created by the relationship of form to space, scale and site. A resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he is most recognized internationally for his piece, “Tribute,” a sculpture he created for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The sculpture, a tribute to peace, ironically was damaged by the terrorist bomb that exploded at the park during the Games, but at the same time it shielded many from the explosions impact. Pieces from “Tribute” have found their way into several of the Thorakas sculptures in this exhibit.

January 28 – April 17, 2010

National Hellenic Museum, Chicago, USA.The event is open and free to the public.

source The National Hellenic Museum Chicago, USA