Alekos Fasianos (1935-2022) was a Greek who spread the wings of painting around the world. At the beginning of his career, he was recognized first in France and in general in Europe, later in the USA and all over the world. It is therefore touching that, a year after his death, the Milanese gallery of Tommaso Calabro, in collaboration with the Alekos Fassianos Estate, is presenting a monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist. This is the perfect prelude to the opening of the artist’s museum in Athens, in a modernist building designed by architect Kyriakos Krokos and the artist in the early 1990s.

The Fassianos exhibition is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy in 47 years. He first presented his work in a neighboring country – thanks to Alexandros Iola – at the Paolo Barozzi Gallery in Milan in 1976. With this tribute, the Tomasso Calabro Art Gallery traces the imprint left by the great art dealer as he discovered and helped promote many artists. The exhibition in Milan features oil paintings, works on paper and scenery for Fassianos’ play “Trito Stefani” by Costas Tachzis, illustrations of Luis Aragon’s poetry collections, and a collection of designer furniture and objects created by the artist. Alekos Fazianos was born in Athens to a musician father and mother who taught ancient Greek. He has developed a whole idiom of his own that combines mythology, religious and everyday elements. Although there are references to Greek culture in his work, his art seems to be universal and timeless. Color and man are the protagonists: bright blue and red, ocher and dark green, silver and Byzantine gold flood his paintings and create bodies and faces, winged gods, birds and dragons.

The figures of pheasants, both androgynous and priestly, are inspired by his childhood memories and live in an imaginary dimension where ancient heroes, Byzantine horsemen and lovers on the balcony merge into one. They wear checkered pants, pearl necklaces adorned with bird feathers. Alekos Fazianos was a versatile man and experimented with every material he could get his hands on, even the humblest. From paper and bronze to wood, clay and marble. And from paintings and sculptures to utilitarian objects and furniture. As for the opening of his museum, his daughter Victoria advised us to be patient…