Nymph, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
£1,200
In stock
About the Artist
Aimilios Metaxas (b.1999, Greece) is a visual artist skilled in painting, character design and storytelling. Through his practice, Aimilios investigates how monetary value is created, how we have been manipulated into believing that myths and fairy tales should only be for kids and how images and materials are filled with symbolism bestowed to them turning them into tools used to acquire power and control over people. Aimilios aims to show how we could experience life through our human desires, while also being able to keep our inner child alive. With his works, he aims to break free from all the earthly chains people place onto imagination and provide people with a safe space for their imagination to run wild. Aimilios explores his own identity not only as part of the lgbtq+ community, but also as an adult striving to keep his inner child alive, while also navigate the life and responsibilities of the adult world.
In my practice I am interested in depicting a balance between living life as an adult while also being able to maintain your inner child alive. I explore themes such as my culture, sexuality, desires, emotional turmoils, my feelings and thoughts, and share them with the world. I wish to break free from the earthly chains people place onto imagination and provide a safe space for imagination to run wild. Moreover, I am intrigued by the theme of value in my practise. How is value being created?, what makes something valuable? It’s not beauty nor size that determines the value. Value is, and has always been, 90 percent imaginary. Imaginary value is a tricky thing; it has a very real way of becoming very real. Ink is the material of choice I use mainly in my practice. It is a material with which I explore art history connected with knowledge, desire, power struggles, slavery, work and power. It is a material we are all familiar with, it was the medium we used as kids during class to doodle and bring our intuitive thoughts to life. It is also the material that was used throughout history to pass on knowledge to the next generations. For me it reflects perfectly what my works stand for, try to find a balance between the adult and the child. I carefully depict through using the brush to contour figures and narratives that embrace ornamentation and decoration. I am often grappling with style versus the spiritual aspect of thing. The decorative nature of the art of the West -combined with the essence found in the art of the East.
