George Levantis

Photos - Drawings - Paintings

Wales-born Greek painter Georges Levantis.

Levantis had the fortune to know the great man, Beuys. Back in the seventies, he arrived to an illegally-occupied house near Düsseldorf, est Germany, where the only requisite to live there was to be an Elvis Presley fan: these squatters were all alumni of the "Free College" founded by Beuys and the writer Heinrich Boll in 1974. These years, needless to say, left a significant imprint in Levantis, and genuine afection for Beuys.
Levantis' father was a captain in the merchatn navy, a traditional Greek occupation (being seafarers). In his twentis, Levantis found himself a artist-inresidency far from the expected: he was assignated to container ships, in three different voyages between 1974-75, trips that were to last a few months each, sailing to Japan, Ivory Coast and South East Asia. As he puts it himself, the ships crew, having imagined that Levantis would be holding painting classes, were mistified when Levantis started explaining that he was going to do "something"... He didin't know what, yet. But hte experience let to a series of performances, tangible objets or constructions and photographs, all documented in a book called "Pieces of Sea Fall Through The Stars", published with the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in March 1978.

Levantis recent art work part from drawing as tool: a limited colour scheme, using the pencil or oils. There is a recurrence of motive, a wish to reach beyond by exhausting the subject matter. Right, Levantis in his studio.

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