Quick Facts
Biography
Kostis Velonis (born 1968) is a Greek sculptor. He is known for exploring the melancholia of unrealized Modernist and avant-garde projects.
Career
Velonis lives and works in Athens/Greece. Most recently, his work has been shown at Kunstverein in Hamburg (Hamburg, 2009), Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens, 2010), Witte de With Contemporary Art Center (Rotterdam, 2011), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2013), Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, 2014), Palais des Beaux Arts (BOZAR) (Brussels, 2014), Kunsthalle Athena (Athens, 2014), Whitechapel Gallery (London, 2015), Lothringer13 – Städtische Kunsthalle München (Munich, 2015), Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (Milano, 2015), among other places.
Education and Institutional Support
Velonis has earned advanced degrees from Birbeck College (London), Université Paris 8, and a PhD from the National Technical University of Athens. His work has been supported by the MAK Center (Los Angeles, 2012), the Swedish Arts Council (Malmö, 2012), Casa Maauad (Mexico City, 2016), and the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, 2016).
Work
According to a recent catalogue, "His work interrogates the ideological orientations of avant-garde movements during the 20th century, which saw art as a practice for social purposes." Velonis’ work reminds us of domestic spaces which were easily dismissed during the heyday of modernism, when it was considered a failed and outdated value system. Apart from historical connotations, the playful narrations and “awkward” craftsmanship of Velonis’ sculptures demythicize the “revolutionary” rhetoric and ideological taboos of contemporary “political art”. Velonis evokes contradictory ideas through the use of simple materials. His work explores the broader contexts around class identity and the beauty of the trivial. He engages concepts that encompass rather than isolate aesthetics and politics.
Velonis' work has been documented in a number of publications, including: ArtPulse Magazine, ArtForum, and ArtReview. According to art historian Daphne Vitale, Velonis "is considered one of the most important Greek artists of his generation."