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Artist Interprets Contemporary Life with Links to Past Art and HistoryAs the former head of Dailey & Associates, one of the oldest, most successful advertising firms in Los Angeles, Phil Joanou could have retired to the plush comforts of a Southern California beach house. Instead, he headed for New York where for six years, first working on a Master of Fine Art degree in painting at the New York Academy of Art. He then sequestered himself in a small TriBeCa studio to paint.
These days, he's back in California, MFA in hand. But he still spends his days in a studio, this time in Pasadena. Regardless of where he is, Joanou is enthralled with the act of painting.
He works in a style he describes as contemporary figurative realism. You can see what that is for yourself in his exhibition "Phil Joanou, Painter," which opened earlier this week at the DeHaan Fine Arts Center Gallery on the University of Indianapolis campus.
It's work that Joanou has said is based on the "events and ideas in media, entertainment, war, celebrity, family, genetics, the environment." His style combines imagery from advertising and graphic design with elements of German medieval art and expressionism.
"I paint what I see and feel about contemporary culture," said Joanou, "sometimes linking today with timeless references from mythology, art and literature."
For Joanou, the act of interpreting contemporary culture
more: www.indystar.com/articles/1/17745... (134)
September 10, 2004 | Viewed 29,136 time(s)
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