Yanos Bouzioukos is an international artist; a stained glass virtuoso. His art work carries images of Greece, and this April, he will share them with Australia in his third Australian solo exhibition.
In his career, Bouzioukos has earned distinction for the quality of his work abroad as well as in Greece. In 1978, Lawrence Lee, one of the most eminent stained glass artists and member of the Royal Academy of London, awarded Bouzioukos with the Howard Martin Design Award. The same year, he was elected a Diploma Member of the Society of Industrial Artists and Designers of London.
A graduate of the Vakalo School of Decorative Arts in Athens, Bouzioukos specialised in contemporary glass techniques in the UK.
“Back than, glass techniques were not very well known in Greece. So I took it upon myself to study stained glass, and bring my knowledge back to the motherland. I wanted to study something challenging, something more complicated than painting and something that was missing from Greece. After visiting the fine art schools in Paris and London, I decided that London would be the ideal place to study glass techniques,” the artist tells Neos Kosmos.
The stained glass technique involves hand-blown glass, lead cames and solder. Glass that has been coloured by adding metallic salts during its manufacture is cut into shapes and placed into a mosaic. The pieces are held together by strips of lead to form a stained glass window. For the artist himself, to go through the different stages of creating a stained glass panel or a glass collage composition is a unique process and a great challenge.
Apart from being a stained glass virtuoso, Bouzioukos has a strong background in lecturing on this decorative art. He lectured on contemporary glass techniques in Great Britain, and taught at the Vakalo School of Art and Design, a department he founded himself. The second time he visited Australia, in 1991, together with his Greek Australian wife, he was invited by the established Australian glass artist Maureen Cahill to lecture as a guest at Sydney University. In 2012, he taught a stained glass course at Sydney College Rozelle.
“Although much of my work is abstract – usually for commissions – the work which I have chosen to exhibit here in Sydney is specifically intended to remind us all of the beauties of Greece, of the unique beauty of the Mediterranean landscapes and Aegean seascapes which have been carved indelibly in our minds and hearts,” Bouzioukos says.
“The deep blue of the Aegean Sea, the clear azure skies, the strong sunlight and the contrast of the harsh earthen-mountains of the islands – they form all the elements of strength which guide me to express myself wherever I am, and wherever I work. They charge my batteries and give me the inspiration to commence a new composition. And this is what I try to depict in the simplest possible way,” he concludes.
Yanos Bouzioukos’ solo exhibition ‘Seascapes and Landscapes of Greece’ is showing at Dragon’s Lair Gallery, Hurstville Museum & Gallery (14 MacMahon Street, Hurstville, Sydney). The exhibition closes on Sun 28 April.
For more information, contact (02) 9330 6444.