Portrait 

Curator: Here we have "Portrait," a drawing by George Bouzianis. Look closely at the paper's warm tone, which gives the sketch an aged effect. What’s your first impression? Editor: Melancholy. There’s something haunting in the softness of the lines. It's almost as though the figure is fading into the ground. Curator: The use of pencil here is interesting, given Bouzianis’s exploration of identity and psychological spaces. The vagueness you note could relate to themes of alienation he addresses in his body of work. Consider the artist's history; as a Greek living through considerable political and social upheaval, perhaps he represents something about diaspora or exile. Editor: You know, the beauty emerges from the tonal gradations. See how he builds up the shadows to give form to the face? It isn't precise; rather, the features almost dissolve into light. Look at the layering, the deliberate hatching, it almost becomes abstract. Curator: It certainly prompts us to consider representation, and to question what elements, what gazes, get foregrounded when crafting or controlling such an image. Are they active subjects, or passive, lost, memories? Who defines that narrative? Editor: It also reminds us how the simplest of mediums, in this case just pencil on paper, can evoke complex emotions, but I have a very hard time placing any social context to it. Curator: These aren't mutually exclusive. It may simply be how we position the gaze, and perhaps the person represented also looks for such space for pause. That he left the identity of this individual obscure grants such open meaning for me. It opens it up to those in positions of in-betweenness. Editor: So, ultimately, whether we consider the emotional atmosphere cultivated by its structural ambiguity, or attempt to find within its incompleteness resonance to socio-political turmoil, Bouzianis’s “Portrait” offers rich terrain. Curator: Absolutely. It allows us to delve more profoundly into the human experience and our ongoing dialogues of both self and society.