Michail Parlamas

Michail Parlamas was born in Piraeus in 1977. He studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki. He continued his postgraduate studies in London with the financial support of State Scholarship Foundation.

From 2009 up until now he has been actively implementing various religious and symbolic references in his paintings with the aim to create a new narrative.
Elements from ancient Greek mythology with the equivalent of Sumerian and Hindu mythos co-exist with popular culture icons and key figures of the 21st century.
Although they look disparate at first glance, in essence everything stems from an initial idea that was later on polarized, similar to the strenuous efforts of the human race for differentiation and identity formation. This idea stems from the theory of comparative mythology. According to this, knowledge and symbols that are long forgotten over the centuries converge to a single point of reference.

When this theory is applied to painting the artist finds that it creates a visual dialogue that attempts to bring to the viewers attention the contrast between the Asian ideals of homogeneity, unification and minimalism with the constant pursuit for individualism and self-indulgence of Western culture.

This never-ending struggle of the human condition is further exploited in the painting surface by the heavy usage of archetypal symbolism, pluralism in colour, multipoint composition and a surreal undertone. Eventually, this creative drive applies a universal tone to the painting thus allowing for the viewers interpretation as well as a personal need to “unearth” the past, thus discovering my own personal truths.