Phevos Kesidis
Art is a very familiar place. The creative process was welcomed and admired within my family environment.
The blank paper, the empty surface, is a sacred space without rules or ethics—thus a space of great exploration.
Growing up with this freedom, I witnessed great beauty and great suppression.
I approach art from a playful perspective.
A wide range of experimentations, material combinations, techniques, and different types of art—this is often laborious.
The overall process often leads to a simplistic technique, especially when considering the backstory.
Passing through the industry as a fashion and graphic designer, and spending time teaching, are factors that have surely shaped me.
I came out of these experiences with a need to be cleansed, to be baptised into pure creativity—wanting to satisfy a longing for sacred, joyful experimentation.
Giving it the proper time, the right space, without any practical reason—just acknowledging this long-tamed impulse and letting it play.
Thus, these works are a stage of just that.
“CATAL” acrylic & ink on gypsum board
” RAJAN “ acrylic and spray paint on marine plywood, smooth acrylic ground
I embrace the paradoxical aspect of life as truth.
I don’t fight it. I embody it.
To communicate—or maybe to ground—this explorative act, I often use the lines of a human face.
A character’s portrait or the body of an animal can serve as a map, or as a reference to the “known.”
So you won’t be afraid.
” THE SMILIEST “ acrylic and spray paint on marine plywood, smooth acrylic ground
The mistake is also a foundational aspect of my work.
It acts as a gate to surprise and humility.
It probably started as a way to beautify—or hide—my lack of knowledge, and was later accepted as an authentic expression. A technique.
Thus, the phrase “confident clumsiness” comes very close to what is happening—at least until I understand something deeper about it. Or maybe not.
“JABOO“ digital painting in Photoshop
“SENEGAL“digital painting in Photoshop
An interesting realisation in my work was when shades started to become a tangable aspect of life, with it’s own dimension. Not just a light phenomenon.
Greatly affected by comic art, graffity, engraving techniques, traditional orthodox drawing “agiographia”, several digital graphic effects, the fashion trends atmosphere, fabrics.
I’m a great admirer of craft in general. I greatly admire the way Japanese craftsmen work.
I have devoted a great deal of time to understanding reality and the dimensions of existence.
I have been in esoteric schools, through powerful ceremonial experiences, practices, and co-existences—opening unspeakable aspects of life.
Lately, this exploration has become a study and practice of healing.
It has helped me tremendously to merge dimensions of life that were known to me, but disowned by my social surroundings.
I feel blessed to live with that relief—the sense that what I understand is true, and that I no longer have to deny it.
Somehow, art has given me that psychological space, which has now become a space of integration—a space of healing.
I want to communicate that.