James Georgopoulos
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

James Georgopoulos (born 1966 in
Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is the List of municipalities in New Hampshire, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Located on the banks of the Merrimack River, it had a population of 115,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Manches ...
) is a Greek-American
visual The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...
artist. Georgopoulos works with painting, sculpture, and video installation to address a relationship between highly skilled production techniques, pop culture, and taboo iconography. His work is in various collections, including the Panavision USA Collection. He lives and works in
Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...
.


Early life

Georgopoulos was born in
Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is the List of municipalities in New Hampshire, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Located on the banks of the Merrimack River, it had a population of 115,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Manches ...
, and began creating visual works at the age of 14 while at
Cardigan Mountain School Cardigan Mountain School, also called Cardigan or CMS, for short, is an all-boys independent boarding school for grades six through nine, located on 62 Alumni Drive, Canaan, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded in 1945 on land provided b ...
. His father was an art collector and became friends with many of the artists he collected, exposing Georgopoulos to their studios at a young age. Georgopoulos was mentored by Varujan Boghosian, Robert Eshoo, Ivan Albright and James Aponovich when he was just a teenager, leading to his eventual acceptance to
Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase th ...
, which Georgopoulos declined for an opportunity in Italy. In his twenties, Georgopoulos was taken under the wing of
György Kepes György Kepes (; October 4, 1906 – December 29, 2001) was a Hungarian-born painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1937, he taught design at the New Bauhaus (later the School of Design, t ...
, who was part of the
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
movement, spending many of his formative years in Kepes' studios and cites Kepes as a significant influence. Georgopoulos relocated to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
in the early 1990s to work in the film industry with directors such as
Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...
and
Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with ''Dawn of the Dead (2004 film), Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film Dawn of the Dead (1978 film), of the same name ...
, which eventually led to a career as an art director for commercials and music videos, including Pink Floyd's Take it Back. During this time, Georgopoulos also worked on several design projects, most notably for Eddie Sotto and
Current TV Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a small ...
.


Work

In his paintings, Georgopoulos employs an assortment of subject matter, including guns used in blockbuster action films, cameras used to film classics, glossy automobile finishes, pornographic abstraction, and sexuality in
art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...
to address issues of copyright protection, censorship, and the highly designed objects used in the creation of popular culture. Using techniques that combine the artist’s intention, Georgopoulos has consistently worked with imagery that is generally considered off-limits. His work with weaponry, film, automobiles, and pornography is an exploration into male identity, and a self-inquiry into the reasons these objects and subjects are charged with the historical residue they contain. Georgopoulos' paintings are meant to emulate the flat, transparent texture of the automobile-obsessed Finish Fetish artists of the 1960s such as Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, and Craig Kaufman, while his work with pornographic images—which, despite his tendency to use organic pixilated techniques, have been banned from galleries—calls to mind the controversial pieces that landed Wallace Berman in jail in the 1960s. Georgopoulos has been featured in numerous publications including ''Flaunt''
Bullett Magazine
'' Treats Magazine'', and
LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...
. He has exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at Photo L.A. 2014. He was included in Phillips de Pury’s contemporary sale in 2012, and was featured as the artist of honor in 2012 at the Art of Elysium Fifth Annual Heaven Gala.


Guns of Cinema

His series ''Guns of Cinema'', a compilation of gun images from iconic motion pictures and television includes screen-used guns used by
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino ( ; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Known for his intense performances on stage and screen, Pacino is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. His career spans more than five decades, duri ...
in Scarface,
Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...
in her music video "Born This Way",
John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. List of awards and nominations received by John Travolta, His accolades include a Primetime Em ...
in
Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American independent crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino from a story he conceived with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; It tells four intertwining tales of crime and violence ...
,
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...
in
Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American action-thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry (film series), ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first appearance as San Francisco Polic ...
,
Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...
in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, John Malkovich in RED and
Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie ( ; born Angelina Jolie Voight, , June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Angelina Jolie, numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards ...
in
Salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
. Georgopoulos photographs the live firearms at secured armories with
large format Large format photography refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120 film, 120- and 220-roll film), and much la ...
film cameras. With the negatives, Georgopoulos makes silver gelatin prints by hand in his
Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...
darkroom and mounts the prints on composite panel. He then hand paints around the image with custom mixed layers of paint before multi layers of epoxy resin and automotive finish are applied to the top, achieving a mirror like reflective surface.


Cameras of Cinema

Similar to ''Guns of Cinema'', the ''Cameras of Cinema'' series expresses Georgopoulos' affinity for the film and television industry as he photographed a number of motion picture and television cameras which were used to make
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
,
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
, Michael Jackson's Thriller music video,
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
, Kill Bill, and Apocalypto, among others.


Sculpture

Identity also plays a role in a series of sculptural retellings of Greek mythologies that Georgopoulos began working on at the end of 2013. This series contains works that are highly technical, utilizing found industrial elements to create idols of
Greek gods In ancient Greece, deities were regarded as immortal, anthropomorphic, and powerful. They were conceived of as individual persons, rather than abstract concepts or notions, and were described as being similar to humans in appearance, albeit larg ...
, which serves to continue his exploration into post-industrial ideas of manufacture and mythmaking. He is also developing a series of sculptures that include video installations housed in shaped automobile frames, unveiled to the public in fall 2014 with ''Vacation''. For ''There is No End'', a 2015 solo exhibition, Georgopoulos follows in the same lineage of artists such as John Chamberlain or even
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
, by using objects – old car parts, disused slot machines and other jettisoned materials – the artist investigates the self-cannibalizing culture of consumerism. In ''Rodeo Drive'' Georgopoulos displays the wrecked body of a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, powder coated in white and dripping in automotive gold chrome against a scaled video of famed
Rodeo Drive Rodeo Drive () is a street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles, known as one of the most expensive streets in the world. Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is a ...
, playing via projection. In 2016, Georgopoulos' solo exhibition, ''The Earth is Flat'', critiques the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the values and hazards implicit to autonomous computing. This new body of work addresses technology’s integration and prevalence in the alteration of human life in the modern age. The artist’s four sculptures, ''Luddite'', ''Zeus'', ''Weight Watcher'' and ''Autonomous X12'' themselves are superficially interconnected as to insinuate that technology has implemented itself as an indissoluble event in human history.


Shadows

Georgopoulos explores ways to deconstruct the car in a non-traditional visual form so the viewer can appreciate the massive size and power of a car but in the confines of an interior space. The result is a 1:1 scale flat panel homage to the vintage automobile; made in the measurement specifications (length and width) of the manufacturer dimensions, giving the appearance of the car being flattened from above. The exotic super flats are the first exploration of this series, in tribute to the most celebrated super car brands,
Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. ( , ), usually referred to as Lamborghini or colloquially Lambo, is an Italian manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its su ...
,
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
,
Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...
,
McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...
, and
Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...
.


Selected exhibitions

2016 * The Earth is Flat, Mama Gallery, Los Angeles 2015 * There is No End, Mama Gallery, Los Angeles * Pieces of Heaven Art Auction 2014 * Pieces of Heaven Art Auction * LA Art Show for Axiom Contemporary


References


External links


James Georgopoulos Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgopoulos, James 1966 births Living people Artists from New Hampshire 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors American installation artists American contemporary painters 21st-century American painters People from Manchester, New Hampshire American people of Greek descent 21st-century American sculptors