Emerging artist Nicholas Tsekouras is the busiest he has ever been, preparing for shows across Melbourne throughout the past year, even organising a successful group exhibition a few days ago, at the Fitzroy Art Collective.
He spoke to Neos Kosmos while deep in work for his third solo exhibition, titled Urban Paper, at Red Gallery, which runs from Wednesday until 6 November, with opening night set for this Friday.
“For this exhibition I’ve been working with a new material,” the young visual artist told Neos Kosmos about the street posters he is using from urban environments. “I’m very interested in using material that is recycled, almost waste, and seeing if I can use it as art,” he said.
Most street posters promote an event and new posters are glued over the top, until the layers of paper become quite thick, before they begin to fall apart during the rains in winter, resulting in rubbish on the streets.
“I’ve seen it as an opportunity to explore their possibilities, and extend their life span. Instead of it going into the bin, I can give it another life, exploring the different layers within them and seeing how I can uncover certain things to restore their original meaning and their history,” the artist said.
Collage is an integral part of Tsekouras’ artistic practice, who enjoys combining mediums like watercolour, acrylic, ink and collage in the same artwork.
“I am continuously exploring its potential in different ways. I am very attracted to the medium for two reasons. It is sustainable (I only ever use found materials) and secondly it has the ability to quickly and effectively communicate ideas visually. I think that collage is such an underused and underappreciated medium, thus I am so passionate about teaching creators about it in my workshops.”
The 25-year-old artist has run more than 40 collage workshops in the past couple of years and is quite passionate about introducing it to other creators.
“I have been collecting assortments of papers that have interested me for over a decade. I never had a reason for collecting them, I just did. The collection included newspaper trimmings, business cards, magazine cutouts, little drawings, photographs and things that have interested me for whatever reason. When Melbourne’s first lockdown hit, I was pondering new mediums to explore and my mind took me to the collection I had been hoarding. I finally knew what I would do with it all. Collage was the answer. Halfway through 2020, I had created a series of over 20 A3 mixed media collages.”
Since April this year, Tsekouras has been an Artist in Residence at the Yarra Youth Services, a City of Yarra programme which gives the opportunity to young emerging artists to receive exclusive use of the studio for 12 months.
“It’s so vibrant. I am surrounded by like-minded people who work in sculpture, in painting and graffiti… It’ incredibly inspiring.”
Though Tsekouras has been sketching and drawing for most of his life, he never really thought until now that his art could become his career. He recently completed two degrees, a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) and Laws at ACU Melbourne.
“They are so different. I believe I had to use different sides of my brain to study for each degree!” he laughs. But these have always been his two passions. It is the advocacy side of the law, the rules, the legal system in the world, that intrigues him, but then also being creative. He adds that even law can be creative, when you are planning your arguments to be persuasive in court. During his studies he was also the president of his university’s law students’ society, and later the President and Director of the Australian Law Students’ Association.
His artistic work is in itself inherently political, whilst it may not always be obvious, he says.
Each work unravels vibrant layers of the artist’s thoughts and ideas, at once deeply personal but also universal, relating to social issues, sexuality and the human condition amongst other themes.
“By using collage and destroying the messages portrayed in street posters, I am communicating strong anti-capitalistic ideals. I enjoy this process of mocking societies’ ways and introducing my own thought into the works instead.”
Looking to the future, he says that he thoroughly enjoyed organising his first group exhibition “ARISE” at the Fitzroy Art Collective, and it is something he would love to do again, maybe something even bigger in the future. “I had the opportunity to showcase my own work, but then also bring another 26+ artists into the space to exhibit, some for the first time ever. We had over 200 people come which was fantastic.”
The young Greek Australian artist feels deeply connected to his Greek roots. A symbol that recurs in this practice is the eye. “I’ve always been fascinated by the mysticism behind the eye, and it is no coincidence it has found its way into my practice as a reoccurring symbol. I enjoy thinking about it’s spirituality and knowing that it connects me to my heritage.”
Colour, nature and energy drive his creativity, he added. Upon his last visit to Greece he visited the mainland and also many islands enjoying the beauty they had to offer. “One of my favourite memories was visiting the volcanic islands off the coast of Santorini. The waters were a rich red colour due to being filled with minerals from the earth. It was such a sight and so fascinating to see in person.”
Exhibition: Urban Paper, 19 October – 6 November
Opening night: Friday 21 October | 6pm – 8pm
Where: Red Gallery, 157 St Georges Rd, Fitzroy North
Info: www.redgallery.com.au/exhibitions/nicholas-tsekouras-urban-paper
Follow Nicholas Tsekouras on instagram www.instagram.com/tsekourasarts