Love & Money, 2020

Presented at hasan & partners between January 30th and March 10th 2020 in Helsinki, Finland

This series of paintings was born especially for the project Love & Money, which is held at the premises of hasan & partners advertisement company, in Helsinki, Finland. I made use of these two words in order to play with them in my own personal and subjective way and the name of the project became on the same time the main title of the series.

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'A 245-stars U.S.American flag', 2019. Watercolours and pencil on paper. 75 x 105 cm. Photo Panos Balomenos

The painting entitled ´A 245-stars U.S. American flag´, symbolizes the existing 50 states of the country plus all the registered countries in the globe, all in all 195 (as listed by the end of 2019), which makes a number of 245 in total. It functions as a comment on the nationality of the curator of the project Mark Maher, which is a U.S. American citizen and as a bridge to connect with the second and the third painting of the series.

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'Nomisma 0,00', 2019. Watercolours and pencil on paper. 75 x 105 cm. Photo Panos Balomenos

An illustration of an imaginary currency called NOMISMA, a word of Greek origins, which means "coin" or "currency" used in many different languages when talking in economical and/or financial terms. I took elements from the 50 and 500 euro banknotes in order to create my own non-existing currency of zero value, which is 0,00.

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'Amore', 2019. Watercolours and pencil on paper. 61 x 45 cm. Photo Panos Balomenos

The painting entitled 'Amore' stands for “love” in Italian language. It is a reference to a highly self-centered/self-absorbed/self-referential society where people are only interested in their own belly, pocket and comfort in their lives. In this painting I am shaping the form of a heart with my fingers on my front with the use of my own excrements.