Description
Block printing ink and oil stick on paper, 2.7.21recto/verso
Framed
12 x 9 in.
Cris Gianakos was born in New York City, moved to Crete at an early age and returned to grow up in New York. He attended the School of Visual Arts, but states that he is mostly "self-taught". He currently holds the position of professor at the school. Since the 1960s he has had a strong presence in the American avant-garde. His work is in numerous museums and collections globally, including MoMA, Moderna Museet, Brooklyn Museum, Max Bill, Switzerland and many public and private collections. Gianakos?? work moves freely between different media, with his sculptures, two-dimensional works, drawings, paintings, prints and installations engaging in a continual dialogue. In the late 1970s he began making large and small-scale structures, known as ??Rampworks,? as a solution to the challenge of organizing elements in space. Gianakos has a long-standing relationship with Sweden; Greek installations include Maroussi Ramp, the Capital City of Europe as well as access walkways, bridges and ramps into sites in Thessaloniki, the 2004 Athens Olympics and the Onassis Cultural Centre. He has created over 50 site-specific installations in Europe and the United States. His 49 one-person exhibitions include a retrospective at the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; Minus Space, New York, Galleri Andersson/Sandstrom, Stockholm and Museum of Contemporary Art, Rethymnon and MOMus Museum, Athens. Gianakos received grants from CAPS, New York State, National Endowment for the Arts, Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, New York and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York. The Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, Crete is presenting a solo survey exhibition, SITE, from June 10-September 10, 2019 on all 3 floors, including inkjet prints of Gianakos?? major outdoor installations, 2 new installations he will construct for the show, project drawings, altered photographs, and sculpture, paintings and ephemera, all encapsulated in an 80-page catalogue. He continues to live and work in New York and Europe.