This summer, those who visit Chania and especially the Municipality of Kantanou-Selinou will have the opportunity to browse the exhibition, the short and long time, of Ilias Papailiakis.

The painting of Ilias Papailiakis is distinguished by its minimal expressive vocabulary and the economy of its plastic media. With few lines, minimal material and clear color arrangements, the painter expresses a multitude of emotions, images and concepts. It is a completely original painting with a separate and distinct character in the field of contemporary visual language.

In the exhibition in Kantano, which is also his place of origin, Papailiakis presents 17 works with oil colors on canvas from his recent creation, from the years 2020-2024. These are works that refer on the one hand to the adventures of a journey and on the other hand to the painter’s experiences from his native land.

In the introductory text of the exhibition, the painter notes “I really like the enclosure of the natural landscape. I learned to draw by noticing the lack of escape to any point on the horizon. The absence of the sea and the ridge of 360 degrees make up the quality of the natural space that constitutes me.

The ridge that defined the earth from the sky had the effect of turning my interest to the chthonic, the hegato. The composition of the space submitted to me the closed shape and the gathering inward, vertically.”

Ilias Papailiakis is one of the most important contemporary Greek creators. He was born in Kantano in 1970. He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Athens. In 1999 he was awarded the first prize of the Giannis and Zoe Spyropoulou Foundation. He represented Greece at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and in 2017 he participated in Documenta 14.

He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architectural Engineering at the University of Patras. He has presented his work in 33 individual and more than 120 group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. His works are in private and public collections.

Duration 12 / 07 / 2024 – 10 / 09 / 2024
Daily 10.30-14.00 and 18.00-21.00
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalog published by the Municipality of Kantanou-Selinou