Abstract painter George Tzikas is about to embark on his first solo show Form and Emptiness. The show and his work is a culmination of the two years of work for his masters degree.
“The theme and research is based around form and emptiness and what that really means,” explains Tzikas to Neos Kosmos. “It’s looking at Eastern cultures such as Buddhism and Ancient Greek philosophy and exploring the beliefs and the nature of invisible reality that the Ancient Greeks intuited and tried to express in mathematics, architecture and art.
And the Buddhists through meditation where they explored the concept of emptiness and the universe arising from this invisible reality and the interplay between the manifest world and the un-manifest world.”
Tzikas describes himself as an abstract painter who borders on representational. “I take known objects, known environments, things that we recognise then I try and walk a fine line and breaking that down and abstracting but still to a point that people can access and recognise something in the work. So it’s like an anchor point for them to jump into the work and explore it,” said Tzikas. In this work, George explains the background which involved a lot of reading, thinking and meditation to delve into the world of Ancient Greece and take on board Eastern traditions.
He challenges conventions of form and emptiness but also embraces and showcases it. “A lot of Ancient Greek philosophers did undertake a lot of esoteric practices which reveal this invisible world or reality and meditation is crucial to that. A lot of experimentation and exploration. These works have really focused on the built environment; internal and external structures, and playing with space and form and breaking down space and form. And playing around with the visible and invisible.”
‘Form and Emptiness’ at the Motor Works Galley, South Yarra from March 8 – 25.