As art historian Yiannis Kolokotronis, a professor at the Democritus University of Thrace, writes, "For more than fifteen years, Stelios Gavalas has invented and constantly enriches, a visual utopia of art vocabulary to invade dreams and peoples wishes. We remember his utopian effort, in the series "at the sea shore" (2001. Expression Gallery), to trap the sea in a suitcases, old crates, boats and postal bags, like Xerxes who ordered his soldiers to whip the sea of ​​the Dardanelles.