Nikos Moschos' latest artwork in Xippas Gallery in Kolonaki

By Margarita Pournara

During the last three years, a lot of foreign journalists have come to Greece on the hunt of visual artists who saw the crisis as a source of inspiration for new material. They usually left disappointed. Apart from some graffiti on various Athenian walls and some photo portraits of indigence in cities, not much else existed. Maybe it was too soon to see what art had in store, which, in any case, doesn't have the reflexes or the linear narrative of reporting.



Nikos Moschos shows us through his artwork how a young painter visually imprints everything we experience

 Nikos Moschos presents some excellent work at Xippas Gallery in Kolonaki, which is perhaps one of the first samples of how a young artist transforms what we experience into images. His paintings exude gloom. Silhouettes, better yet, parts of human bodies, machines, objects, in a whirl that touches the viewer deep down in his soul. The power of his compositions is such, that you feel like getting sucked into a parallel timeline, an eerie universe. The 33-year-old painter seems to make a leap from the previous sections that witnessed his talent. He pays close attention to anything that goes on around him: the fear, the pain, the anxiety, like a vein, which constantly pulses intensely and feels the blood flow rising.

"No title", most of Nikos Moschos' paintings are acrylics on linen. His "vocabulary" is immediately recognizable.

 The paintings which are exhibited in Patriarchou Ioakim street are all recently finished. He confesses at our meeting that he was painting to exhaustion, without realizing how much time he was spending in front of the canvas, up until his own body collapsed. "In these pieces, I wanted to put every element that came to my mind without putting them in any order. They were captured with the same force and directness. With a chaos and an urge that I did not censor, nor glamorize", says Nikos Moschos, who thinks that a key-word in order for someone to enter into the microcosm he created is "mind associations". Every painting is a self-contained story which includes violence and oppression. It's as if he is painting coming back from a war front. Ambulance sirens, airplanes, explosions, teeth, eyes, surgeons, bottles, pistons, everything mashed together. The feeling of past or impending doom. His artwork is difficult and painful to see but at the same time captivating and true. I ask him how he would respond to someone who told him that they couldn't coexist with his paintings, they wouldn't put them in their house because they were so intense. "It's impossible for me to remain autistically inside my workshop, without acquiring a new outlook on reality. Nobody can escape the suffocation, the violence that surrounds us. Everything is a battlefield and you can feel it even when you are out with your friends for a cup of coffee. Art can no longer insist on creating images connected to affluence, relaxation, well-being. Painting for entertainment or decoration purposes is a thing of the past and the Greek audience is ready to welcome new ideas."

Artwork difficult and “painful” to see but captivating and true. A feeling of past or impending doom.

 Moschos is sure: "Nobody can predict the future of Greece anymore. To be honest, I would rather live here than organize an escape abroad. I believe that no matter how hard these times are, they will teach us, change us, make us go forward with courage. Life goes on, and so does art..."