BIOGRAPHY

Demetrios Papakostas is a Canadian painter who makes abstract paintings characterized by his passion for bold technical investigation, colour spatial and perception. His thoughtful inquiry into the subtleties of the relationship between abstract thinking and the human condition, are characteristic of his deeply held conviction that art must speak from, and to, heart, mind and soul. Born in 1960 in Montreal, Canada, he first became interested in the arts after visiting an artist’s studio while on a family trip to Greece. The artist Tassos Loukithis, was a family friend and it was there after seeing multiple paintings and struck by the beauty of many religious icons hung up all over the artist’s studio that he decided he wanted to draw and paint. He studied portrait drawing, watercolour and abstraction at the Visual Arts Center in Montreal with Nicole Lebel, Heather Yamada, and with prominent Canadian painter Harold Klunder, and also taking various art classes at the Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts, and at the University of Concordia night art school. He is a recent member of the www.geoform.com a website dedicated to featuring prominent artists working primarily in geometric abstraction and colour field painting from all around the world. In addition to his painting practice, Demetrios is also the founder and director of Galerie Erga, a rental gallery which he manages and is attached to his studio. He has been a teacher’s assistant to Heather Yamada at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Recently in March 2020 he collaborated with fellow artist and friend Gianni Giuliano, to organize and curate the group exhibition titled “diver(s)gence” his first curatorial project, and something which he considers to be an important accomplishment as he strives to continue to look to take on new roles and challenges. Demetrios has been participated in exhibitions since 2003 at Gallery Latitude 44 in Toronto, and at the Visual Arts Centre, Galerie Espace, and Galerie E.K. Voland, Galerie Beaux Arts des Ameriques and Galerie Erga in Montreal and Galerie de la Ville, Gallery ArtZone 42 in Athens, Greece. His artwork was also selected to appear in a Quebec-made film, entitled “Sur le Rythme”. His work is collected by and present in several businesses, corporations and private homes. Papakostas is represented by Denison Gallery in Toronto Ontario.

ARTIST INSIGHTS

Who are some of your biggest artistic influences?

Marc Rothko, Guido Molinari, Claude Tousignant, Joan Mitchell, Richard Diebenkorn, Agnes Martin, Picasso...and many more!

What does your artistic work intend to communicate to its audience?

The sense of tranquility, movement, simple questions of our paths through life...

Does your work comment on any current social or political issues?

Not at all.

Do you have a particular story that stands out from your career as an artist?

There are many stories that have lead me on this path and the only things that I can say that stands out is that art is important and something that I have to do. Maybe it's to discover myself, maybe to find a deeper meaning. Mostly though it's the journey that stands out and all the little up's and down's that have lead me to this particular moment.

Why have you chosen to sell your work in the 1515 Lincoln Gallery?

I love working with Susan. She is a warm and engaging person who really cares and supports the artists that she represents.

WATCH

Watch “Intersecting Lines” - In Studio With Demetrios Papakostas (2015)

ARTIST STATEMENT

Color as place – A space where the inward search and the interpersonal hum and dance, moving us ever forward as seekers alone and together. My artistic choices are primarily focused on possibilities for using form, surface, and space, to initiate conversations around the color experience and perception of color-spatial. Using primarily geometric forms, this expression then becomes a gateway to new exploration conveying movement and the discovery of the unexpected.

 DEMETRIOS PAPAKOSTAS’S AVAILABLE ART

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