Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Art as a Message of Change
Christos Farantatos, Tatos as he’s known in the NYC art circle, boldly expresses his message on canvas as he challenges both traditional and controversial boundaries. Layered in intricate social and political concepts, the life experiences of his subjects seem to amalgamate into his own story. His work invokes transformative powers not only for his constituents in the art arena but also for the citizens of the world community. Though from varied lifestyles with different perspectives, viewers’ consciousness arises in response to his paintings; they arrive at a similar, final interpretation: I must be the change that is destined!
Recently, Tatos joined forces with Oak Hill Consulting Partners and has experienced an explosion in sales. The purpose of the union ensures a market position that his work stays in high demand for years to come. Tatos, also, is the latest recipient of an art installation, 4-foot x 8-foot oil painting, to art collector, social activist, actor, and Black Wall Street entrepreneur, Hill Harper. In the piece, the materials, method, and theme fuse into solitary intercourse of colored strokes in motion.
As the signature of a master, Tatos’s rare style of artistry beheld in four of his most notable collections. He believes art speaks to the depth of the seer. One viewing his work may strike up an inner dialogue with the piece, such as in his series, Baby Star. Is the flag speaking for someone or something? Does it symbolize people, perhaps Black people, as a metaphor? What is the deeper meaning of the red, white, and blue?
Genesis Man, a collective work of the Black man’s alienation, includes 16 pieces and expanding. The subject appears as a single dark figure, a cluster of body outlines, or transparent body drawings with a minimal background. For a strong textured feel, Tatos employees enamel paint to emphasize thick lines. For the figure in the middle of the canvas, he applies black ink markers. Upon stepping back from the painting, illusion takes effect, and the seer is drawn into the center of the piece. Now, the dark figure looks three-dimensional.
In his large horizontal-vertical rendition of Genesis Man, Tatos incorporates more than one single man, sometimes three or four. The pieces, by their very nature, represent many interpretations of the Black man as a distinct species: the disintegration of his family, his limitations, his perils, and the walls that Black People, in particular the Black male, climb to succeed in western society. Essentially, the works explore the depth of our country’s complicated relationship with the Black man. Tatos hopes that the diametrical opposed horizontal-vertical lines isolate the image so that the looker can internalize the difficulties Black people face in a caged and oppressed society.
Straight Jacket is a collection of works, depicting the inseparability of sanity and insanity as well as insanity and sanity. As a youngster, Tatos was given permission to observe others as a voyeur. On his very first summer job at the Sanitarium in Poughkeepsie, New York, Tatos witnessed a young boy moving about the grounds in seemingly a peculiar way. Though most would conclude behavior of insanity since it was a Sanitarium. However, Tatos thought the functionality of both, sanity and insanity, coexist. The juxtaposition of sanity and insanity subsist in close proximity, whether inside or outside of confined circumstances.
William – Sleeping on a Water Street bench in the Financial District, William, a homeless man, shields his disfigured face. William is not ashamed or embarrassed by his abnormality. Instead, he covers to spare others of the discomfort. He lives in his own world with his own routines, right in the midst of the overflowing kingdom of wealth.
While eating lunch downtown in the Wall Street area, Tatos accessed a personalized exchange and eventually made a confidant. William confided in Tatos and he got to know the man behind the veil. Inspired, Tatos birthed the series William, 23 incredible oil paintings, where abstract intersects Expressionism. His use of space with small canvas size and dominating subject, William the man is lifted out of the frame as a monolithic entity, surpassing the pain and suffering of humankind. In a collaborative interplay of colors, Tatos chose broad strokes of vibrant yellows, burnt oranges, soft pinks, and splashes of red, white, and blue. Tatos feels colors represent the varied states of the mind. He applies them freely to express the beauty behind the curtain, and the appreciation humans often find in each other, thereby putting human frailties.
For more information about Tatos’s work and upcoming exhibitions, please visit his website at http://www.christosfarantatosart.com/ or contact his art rep at KARL@OAKHILLCONSULTINGPARTNERS.COM.
Contact Information:
Oak Hill Consulting Partners
Karl McLaurin
Phone: 617.306.2771