ITHACA REGAINED

GREEK ARTISTS IN NEW YORK

Philip Tsiaras

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1952 of Greek parents, Tsiaras graduated in comparative literature from Amherst College in 1975. After studying with Lucas Samaras and winning an important poetry prize, he traveled to Greece in 1976 to translate contemporary Greek poetry into English. On his return to America he began to take a methodical interest in photography – resulting in his Family Album series (1980-90), a group of dramatically staged images taken with family members in the family home, juxtaposing the sensuality of his own youthful body with the cluttered bric-a-brac of a typical middle-class Greek dwelling, complete with reproductions of the Discus Thrower and other Greek images. In the mid-1980s, Tsiaras turned toward ceramics, creating wildly imaginative "baroque" vases.

Tsiaras also loves the art of words; he invariably embodies a search for the hidden relations between writing and visual representation, and he believes that each word conceals a profound inner wealth. He works in a wide range of materials: canvas, glass, clay, bronze and photography. His sculpture “Social Climber” received critical acclaim at the 2001 Venice Biennale.

Characterized by deliberate excess and a fascination with the relationship of sensual fantasy to the banality of socialized behavior, Tsiaras’s work overlaps mythical notions of sexuality with the prosaic realities of contemporary life.