Odysseus Yakoumakis
Encyclopedia
Odysseus Yakoumakis is a Stuckist
Stuckism
Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
artist, painter and illustrator, based in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. He is the founder of the first Greek Stuckist group, The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship
The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship
The Romantic Anonymous Fellowship was founded by the Stuckist painter Odysseus Yakoumakis on September 2004, as the first, and currently the only, Greek group of Stuckism International...
, and organiser of the first international Stuckist group show in Greece, Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity. He was a scheduled speaker at the first Stuckist international symposium, The Triumph of Stuckism, in England. He practises martial arts and he is currently studying traditional engraving.
Life and art
Michael Odysseus Yakoumakis was born in AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. He studied painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
at the "Scuola Libera del Nudo" of the "Accademia di Belle Arti" of Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and obtained Laurea in Geological Science, from the University of the same city. He gained a post-graduate diploma in Computer Science from the Institute of Informatics of EL.KE.PA. (Hellenic Centre for the Enhancement of Productivity), Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. He also completed free studies in Sumi-e and traditional Chinese painting
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
, engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
, artistic book-binding and Graphics Design (this last at the Athens Technological Education Institute).
He worked at various parts of the globe, in parallel as an engineering geologist, systems engineer and visual artist. From 2003 he has focused exclusively on the Visual Arts and settled down at Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
where he works as a painter, illustrator and writer of fantasy-fiction, graphics designer and Visual Arts instructor. His art has been shown in solo shows in Athens and group exhibitions in Athens, Montreal, Nicosia, London, Rome, Hamburg, Liverpool and Florence.
His artistic oeuvre aims "to express ideas, ideals and feelings and to convey messages at the personal, social, political, philosophical and mystic levels". He contrasts the Post-modern era with what he describes as "older, perhaps much happier and certainly more interesting times". He has increasingly used anthropocentric subject matter and a more minimalist use of a vocabulary of mythological symbols drawn from "ancient traditions of the Earth" and from his own subconscious," in a satire of "life-style", "technology", "anti-art", "economic power" and "wealth". His nostalgia is obsessive. His style combines elements from the schools of the Italian Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, the Flemish and German “Primitives”, the Japanese Sumi-e and the Chinese Gonbi and Xieyi, the movements of figurative Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, and from certain genres of European comics. He divides his current oeuvre into "Principal", "Expressionistic" and "Japanistic".
Previous projects
Yakoumakis was one of the featured artists exhibiting in the "The Triumph of Stuckism", an exhibition of new Stuckist paintings curated by Naive JohnNaive John
Naive John is a British artist and figurative painter. His work shows attention to detail with subjects that combine elements from popular culture alongside the mythic and mundane. He has also in the past been involved in the Stuckism art movement.-Art: Naive John is a self-taught artist...
, as part of the 2006 Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Biennial is a British international festival of contemporary art held in Liverpool. The festival comprises the International Exhibition, the John Moores Painting Prize, the Bloomberg New Contemporaries Exhibition and the Independents Biennial....
. He is also billed as one of the speakers at the accompanying International Symposium at Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool John Moores University is a British 'modern' university located in the city of Liverpool, England. The university is named after John Moores and was previously called Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts and later Liverpool Polytechnic before gaining university status in 1992, thus...
in October 2006.
Current projects
Yakoumakis is currently curating Under the Cover of Romantic Anonymity, an international Stuckists group show in AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, billed for May 1 - May 14 of 2010 at the "Ash-In-Art" Gallery. Stuckist artists taking part include Yakoumakis himself,
Ilania Abileah, ANTHE, Ian J. Burkett. Guest artists participating are Ray Wilkins, Lefteris Yakoumakis, Vasilis Selimas, and Nickos Delijannis.
In parallel with the show, the new book by Odysseus Yakoumakis will be featured, titled "Leaflets from the Wilderness (a case study about the artscape in nouveau-Greece and many other lands)" ("Ash-In-Art" Publications).
Yakoumakis is currently writing and illustrating two series of fantasy-fiction novels and graphic novels, "The Chronicles of the Archipelago" and "The Chronicles of the West". The first book of the "Chronicles of the Archipelago", titled "The Gift of Cannon", is expected to be published by "Ash-In-Art" Publications on September 2010.
The launching of the book will be combined with a show of its major illustration panels, which have been implemented by Yakoumakis as paintings, at the "Ash-In-Art" Gallery, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
English and Italian publications of all the above mentioned books will be attempted from 2011 and on.
See also
- The Romantic Anonymous FellowshipThe Romantic Anonymous FellowshipThe Romantic Anonymous Fellowship was founded by the Stuckist painter Odysseus Yakoumakis on September 2004, as the first, and currently the only, Greek group of Stuckism International...
- StuckismStuckismStuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...
- RemodernismRemodernismRemodernism revives aspects of modernism, particularly in its early form, and follows postmodernism, to which it contrasts. Adherents of remodernism advocate it as a forward and radical, not reactionary, impetus....
- The Stuckists Punk VictorianThe Stuckists Punk VictorianThe Stuckists Punk Victorian was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art. It was held at the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool from 18 September 2004 to 20 February 2005, and was part of the 2004 Liverpool Biennial....