“1821/1922 Victory and Defeat / Triumph and Destruction" is the title of the exhibition by Vangelis Tzermias, which will be hosted at Sianti Gallery from March 11 to April 2, 2022. In the context of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution and 100 from the Asia Minor disaster, the unity of the artist’s works with historical reference highlights the solidarity and dedication of the protagonists. The realistic liberation of 1821 but also the symbolic one of 1922 is found in a visual correspondence completely intertwined with everyone’s consciousness.

Historian Louiza Karapidakis, who also curates the exhibition, characteristically notes: “Vangelis Tzermias, inspired by the phrase of Paul Valeris, " Memory is the future of the past”, started a visual dialogue on the occasion of the anniversary of two milestone events in Greek history , of the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Asia Minor disaster of 1922, of an unexpected victory and an incalculable defeat. The artist with the characteristic strongly expressionistic feature of his manner of painting, the skillful pictorial associations and the explosive energy that his works emit conveys to us in an abstractly descriptive way historical moments and their echo throughout the centuries. He deals with the events in design and with his own aesthetic rules, sometimes in an emphatic way and sometimes in a symbolic way, he captures them in color on his canvas.

In the section of the works dealing with the years of the Revolution, he is particularly concerned with rendering the heroic feeling and paying a tribute to the heroes of the nation’s liberation struggles. The figures of the protagonists are described fighters and with the recognizable costume elements, but without the particular characteristics of their faces, the artist not wanting to identify specific faces but to refer in general to the sacrifice of the fighting Greeks. He even dares to represent the headless bodies of fighters in order to reasonably refer both to the immaterial dimension of self- denial and faith, to the great idea “better than an hour’s free life”, as well as to the armed struggle of the Armatols.

In the compositions on the theme of the Asia Minor disaster, he focuses more on the drama of the tragic moments and the emotional charge. It records the moments of devastation, the fires, the ruins, the persecution, the escape by sea. while also alluding to human suffering with various conceptual references. In this thematic unit, between the surrounding atmosphere of destruction and the general sense of action and mobility, he emphatically incorporates the seascape, one of his favorite subjects. Jermias forges his historical references with an idiosyncratic narrative power, using as expressive tools his spontaneous writing, selective forms, sometimes drastic abstractions, skillful use of color and his compositional ability”.

For her part, the Managing Director of Sianti Gallery, Vasiliki Sianti emphasizes: “In this section of the works of Vangelis Jermias, memories come to life and are placed in the present day. In the artist’s rough painting rendering of historical moments, the palette of warm and cold colors is mixed, projecting historical events with an almost topical character.”