Jannis Varelas will be exhibiting a series of new paintings, through Athens’ Breeder Gallery at Frieze New York on Randall’s Island, NY, from May 5-7, 2017 (booth C33).

Varelas created Black Frames (2017), (seen above) as a specially commissioned work for the Art Wall at the Onassis Cultural Center New York in conjunction with the exhibition A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD. It will remain on view through June 24 in the Olympic Tower Atrium, located at 645 Fifth Avenue at 51st Street.

And if the soul is ever to know herself, must she not look at the soul? —Plato, Alcibiades

The diptych pictured above was inspired by this line from Plato’s “Alcibiades” and the epigraph of Giorgos Seferis’ poem “Argonauts” (1935). The work explores the complex relationship between self-knowledge and identity within the context of social restrictions and impositions, and the emotional conflicts that can arise between a sense of self and one’s role in society.

Jannis Varelas lives and works in Athens, Vienna, and Los Angeles. He received an MFA from the Royal College of Art in London and a BA from the Athens School of Fine Arts. http://www.thebreedersystem.com/