Michalis Karaiskos

My practice questions the conditions for experiencing the sublime. Is it attainable to paint a picture in an abstract language that represents the limitless? In my present research, I explore the paradox of seeing the light and color in the absence of any specific object of sight, aiming to create a sense of perceptual indeterminacy that acts upon the viewer. Indeed, some of my paintings appear as a glowing rectangular field on the wall, a cut-out opening into a dazzling void, which functions as a sort of a portal to another space-time continuum.
Furthermore, I am interested in the phenomenological experience of color, dealing with how color operates on its own terms and within the context of other colors. My practice is seeking to get into the subject matter of color and understand it through experience.
The chromatic structures are organized and escalated so as to leave viewers often with a feeling of 'destabilization' as zones of clarity interact with zones of vagueness. At the same time, the 'tricks' of visual counterpoint I introduce within a densely structured network demonstrate the kinetic potential of color, creating a kind of optical tremolo.
A sense of compression and acceleration is also present as the size of the forms gradually decreases and the frequency of 'events' occurring in the system increases. It seems that the broadly known Physics principle where you cannot have movement without its opposite -stasis finds its visual equivalent. The dialectics of static and dynamic visual elements indeed produce virtual vibration. This is how my research raises the question of visual time since I have to handle two types of rhythm: the overall 'tempo' of the work and the different speeds of the separate modules that make it up.
I follow a systemic approach to color. The works I produce are essentially platforms of 'chromatic events' that demonstrate the subtle qualitative transitions and differentiation that occur in colors in the context of their correlations. Through my paintings, I expose how color visualizes mathematical change and the uncanny atmospheres generated through specific color palettes. I engineer pigment and geometry into illusory experiences that provide clues about their material origins.
How to deal with the sensation of depth has been a big quest. There is seldom a single focal point in most of my ink paintings except the square format ones. However, it is not an unfocused space but rather one not being fixed to a single focus. I plan to develop the potential of multifocal areas versus the single focal ones in conjunction with the complex perspective parameter.
I also wonder how a polychrome can sometimes behave like a monochrome via a ubiquitous and persistent pattern that suggests void and form at the same time and how contextualization can reduce a multitude of colors to one. Translations between the theoretical and the tangible, virtual and the physical, are central to my work. Finally, I recently emphasized an optical implementation of the concept of 'variations for a theme' that resembles the popular form of baroque music. By organizing my material differently each time, I discovered that I could have an entirely diverse outcome for each work.