IOANNIS KARALIAS

Greek architect, poet, and painter, Ioannis Karalias was born in Katerini, Greece and educated at the University of Graz, Austria; School of Architecture, University of Naples, Italy; and at The University of Illinois at Chicago. In 1989, he became Museum President of The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design. In 2008, he also became Chairman of The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies in Dublin, Ireland and Athens, Greece.

 

As an architect, he has designed several large-scale installations at the Design Museum in London, as well as exhibitions in Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Prague, Thessaloniki, Milan, Warsaw, Lisbon, Gothenburg, New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and Miami. He designed the 20-acre International Sculpture Park in Schaumburg, Illinois.

 

As a painter, he was participated in solo and group exhibitions in Milan, Vilnius, Norway, and Los Angeles. His works have been featured in other exhibitions at Museum in the United States, Europe, and South America.

 

In his new paintings, the artist uses a direct approach and vivid, illuminating colors, illustrating the balance of nature between vitality of our rich world and another worldliness. His creatures, mainly animal motifs taken directly from his mind and influenced by different periods of art history, from Egyptian motifs to ancient Mayan forms, enter into an intense dialogue with one another. The creatures cease to be merely symbols of their human counterparts and the roles they play; and instead—through the truly personal convictions of the artist—capture something deeply universal.

 

Markku Valkonen, the Finnish art critic and former Director of the Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland summarized: “The paintings are not giving in, instead they are reaching out.”

 

His first book of poetry, Gatherings, published by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. in 2012 is a dreamlike piece preoccupied by love, either lost or haphazardly acquired, self-identity, relationships, and deep issues of doubt and reckoning, as well as other memories from his past that he chooses now to present and elaborate.

 

His poetry is free verse and deals with timeless subjects drawn from his imagination and his experience—each piece holds so much to be savored and absorbed. With rich details and an always-distinct sense of emotion, the reader feels transported to the author’s material or emotional landscape.

 

His latest book of poems, Internal Journey, translated into English by the Finnish/Lithuanian/American poet, Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, was published by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd., in 2019.

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More information about Ioannis Karalias at www.ioanniskaralias.com

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