Zac Koukoravas

Embedded within Zac’s abstract painting practice are a diverse range of pictorial traditions and cultural experiences including graffiti, architecture, the electronic music scene, political activism and our relation to natural and urban environments. Colour and form, appropriated and deconstructed from the surrounding environment, play a key role in the aesthetics of the work.

'His is a hard/soft-edged, intriguing dialogue of piercing forms, yet possessing an atmospheric quality created by a sfumato effect that draws us into potent spaces in and around the painted surfaces. The overlapping directional shapes, the materials used and the application of paint by airbrush suggest a sense of fragmented soundwaves in deep space and of the ‘far away’, as if pointing to the future. Texture is denied. Surfaces are smooth and screen-like, and within these forms there are suggestions of the physical presence of another, more tenuous world. As with many artists, materials and processes formulate the entrance to these ‘other’ worlds. Koukoravas’ works consist of layered sheets of glass and acrylic, painted on both sides, suspended within a darkened interior frame. By purposefully using a limited range of enamel and acrylic colours, the meticulous shapes within his compositions are delicate, floating as if in a space both microscopic and vast. They permeate a sense of mystery. Traditional brush marks and textures are absent in this conversation of contrast: sharp and soft, opacity and transparency. Pellucid forms both emerge and recede, shifting focus from background to foreground and back again.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Dr Elizabeth Bodey

'Duality is always brought to bear in Koukoravas’ process of making. “I love working with my hands. There is a moment in the studio where all the external noises and a myriad of internal thoughts become silent. I am alone and the simplest of tasks is all-engrossing. It is within these moments of meditative transcendence that I find myself in emotional states of euphoria, peace and understanding”. Perhaps these moments of creative flow and connectedness are similar to the psychosomatic euphoria one feels when high or ‘in the zone’. The viewer shares a space with the artist, one in which there exists both silence and noise, peace and kinetic energy. These notions of synchronicity are evocative: process toward outcome via actualisation. In previous exhibitions Koukoravas has invited engagement with ideas of self in relation to fundamental aspects of the world; nature, crises, or order and chaos. This time his work goes deeper, provoking engagement with the interior life, personal vulnerabilities and strengths. With this new collection of works, he invites us to reflect, see and reconsider our sense of self.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Katy Greenland 2023