Spatial and special smiles
1998-2011
Gioorgos Beleveslis has been a pionneer of greek street art under the nickname Wake.
He has painted in most greek cities in addition to Istanbul, Porto, Barcelona, Ljubliana, Berlin, Venice, Vienna and New York. Wake stands somewhere between illegal street art and legal professional illustrator, grabbing every opportunity to give birth to his images.
He has participated in several group exhibitions or international festivals and contests, such as the Biennale of Athens , 9 directions international expo, Urban Art of Athens, European Meeting of Styles, Write 4 Gold and more.
His work has been published to several illustation and street art books , and covered a wide range of the greek press. His wallpaintings have decorated several private and public spaces, both interior and exterior, in Thessaloniki, Volos and Athens.
Organizator of the international Graffiti Contest ColorYourLife, winner of contests such as Secret Wars (Athens), creator of TV commercial spot CYL, and co-editor for Urbanstyle magazine, wake uses each identity and project to criticize urban space and people’s relationships with it.
Fake plastic smiles in bighead gaunt human-like creatures, forming dipoles and battles of the two sexes, humorous monsters, patterns and textures forming backround space, are some of his work characteristics.
“Graffiti seems to be agressive towards its surroundings.Most of the times, it looks like a colorful pollution that asserts a visual awarness in order to eradicate the urban backround.
However, there are exceptions in which space is a major matter of drawing, concerning forms, light and theme.These are a few examples of spatial/sensual/semantic gaps that give to the backround the opacity it deserves”
“Art is primarily experienced in a state of contemplation, a form of unique awareness (optical or acoustic), of a single viewer. Precise codes of behavior, such as silence and reverence, preoccupy a dipole such as “artist- viewer” or furthermore “producer-consumer”. This relation recognizes a kind of authority for the creator that stands against the viewer.I consider street art as a public narrative exhibition of artists' life, so in a way, I expose personal stories to the city.
In my paintings, I use big smiles as a symbol, to underline the fact that these creatures are actually posing for a camera lens, hiding the original story and waiting for the viewer to come up with their own. All my effort is to decompose the authorized relation between me and the public, with frames that are funny, re-readable and out of a serious official art context.