Paperpulp Fictions

In the Kalogera Hall of the Municipal Gallery of Mykonos, tales made of paper pulp have been installed, rendering the imaginative landscapes of painter Giannis Efthimiou. Paperpulp Fictions are adventures of knights and lonely cowboys, battles of glorious men and wanderings of anti-heroes, and mythical journeys to unknown and exotic places.

In this new body of work, Efthimiou persists in the characteristic motif of the horseman, a theme that has previously occupied his painting. Here, however, he treats his heroes in a more playful mood, indulging in an unlimited color palette and with strong doses of humor. The scenes of Paperpulp Fictions are snapshots of epic raids or imperialistic battles, but of those “wars” we used to play as children, taking place in paradoxical sceneries taken from orgiastic fantasies and with the characteristic childhood spontaneity.

From epic to ironic narrative, Efthimiou’s colorful fantasy world prompts the start of a new game of horses and horsemen, winking at the legendary masculine heroic role models of imperialistic history on this earth.

— Alexia Pappa, Art Historian & Curator