Essays

Europe is Dead. Long Live Europe !

This reflect­ive con­ver­sa­tion between artist Aris Kala­izis and pub­lish­er Stephan Schward­mann addresses sim­pli­fic­a­tion as well as the loss of under­stand­ing and empathy in our troubled view of the crises in Greece, Europe and the Arab world.

I am not a tourist guide

A short inter­view between Erhard Metz from the Frank­furt Feuil­leton and Aris Kala­izis about the ori­gin of the Bartho­lomew-paint­ing as well as the present­a­tion in the Frank­furt cathedral

Ocean

In Stefanie Heese's dis­ser­ta­tion exam­ines the effect of works of art on the under­stand­ing of lit­er­ary texts, using the example of the early paint­ing "Ocean" (2004). She describes the inter­ac­tion between dreams and reality.

It's when I paint that I gain certainty of living.

A dis­cus­sion between the lyr­i­cist Paul-Henri Camp­bell and Aris Kala­izis about his Greek roots, the artist­ic awaken­ing as well as the reli­gious driv­ing force in his paintings

Devastated Home

Based on the paint­ing "Heimat" (2020) by Aris Kala­izis , the Cologne psy­cho­ana­lyst Fotini Ladaki exam­ines the concept of home. She refers to sev­er­al his­tor­ic­al events and looks for par­al­lels in the life of the Kalaizis' fam­ily. Because the painter's par­ents lost their roots and their home­land dur­ing the Greek civil war of 1946 – 1949.

The Mystery of the Self as an Optical Illusion

In anoth­er cri­tique, psy­cho­ana­lyst Fotini Ladaki exam­ines Kalaizis’s paint­ing Kairos. Using this pic­ture, the author explores the dif­fer­ent sorts of com­pet­i­tion between human per­cep­tions in rela­tion to what we gen­er­ally call reality

Actually, I paint to bring myself in crises

Dirk Dobiéy and Thomas Koep­lin from Age of Artists dis­cuss in a detailed inter­view Aris Kala­izis in his stu­dio about wel­come crises, ancient art of liv­ing and the striv­ing for empti­ness as an ini­tial position

The Triumph of the Subject over the Vatican

The psy­cho­ana­lyst Fotini Ladaki offers a sur­pris­ing read­ing of the paint­ing »make/​believe« that shows how Pope Bene­dict XVI. is ulti­mately a sub­ject with autonom­ous agency

There is nothing better and at the same time nothing more difficult, than to make paintings.

Volly Tan­ner, Leipzig city icon, asked in 2014 the Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis in a short con­ver­sa­tion about Leipzig and his feel­ing of liv­ing in this city, his love of paint­ing and his aver­sion to leis­ure activities

The Home of Words

In a second approach to her tri­logy, the Cologne-based psy­cho­ana­lyst Fotini Ladaki, who prac­tices after Lacan and Freud, exam­ines the work of Aris Kala­izis from the per­spect­ive of a phylo­gen­et­ic icon­o­graphy based on the paint­ings "The Ritu­al" and "The Band".

Miracles, Angels and Demons

A dis­cus­sion between Eleni Galani and Aris Kala­izis about angel, the mean­ing of idols as well as the term of the Sottorealismus.

The Delirium of the Upper World through the Underworld of the Real

In a first approach exam­ines the in Cologne liv­ing and to Lacan and Freud prac­tising psy­cho­ana­lyst Fotini Ladaki the paint­ings of Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis under the aspect of a won back mys­ti­cism. Fur­ther­more she describes the integ­ra­tions neces­sary for it of the upper world and underworld.

Discussion about Aris Kalaizis between actress Andrea Sawatzki and Tina Simon

A short dia­log Between act­ress Andrea Sawatzki and Ger­man­ist Dr. Tina Simon about the ori­gin of the col­lab­or­a­tion between an act­ress and a painter.

I am not a Disciple of any School

Ger­man paint­er Aris Kala­izis finds inspir­a­tion right in his own back­yard. He writes scripts to help trans­form his ideas into paint­ings. When it comes to paint­ing, he believes that Leipzig ist he most inter­est­ing place on Earth. After gradu­at­ing from the city’s prestig­ous Hoch­schule für Grafik und Buch­kunst (Academy of Visu­al Arts) in 1997, Kala­izis – born and raised in East Ger­many – stumbled upon some­thing: ‚a gap­ing hole, the so-called free mar­ket’. Since then…

Aris Kalaizis: "The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew or the double Martyrdom"

In this text describes the Ger­man-Amer­ic­an author Paul-Henri Camp­bell the recep­tion his­tory of the St. Bartho­lomew at the example of Kalaizis' large-size paint­ing. In addi­tion, he exam­ines the reli­gious Impetus with­in the "Leipzig School".

I Have Nothing to Say - Perhaps That is Why i Paint

Aris Kala­izis on paint­ing in times of crisis, the social rel­ev­ance of art, and the humble­ness of begin­ning. An Inter­view between Stephan Schward­mann and Aris Kalaizis

His Figures and Faces seemed to be Alive

Prof. Dr. Michael Haensel from the uni­ver­sity of Leipzig describes at the example of baroque paint­ers like Rib­era and Velazquez up to con­tem­por­ary paint­ers of "New Leipzig School" like Neo Rauch and Aris Kala­izis, the role of the craft in the painting

Comments on the Messianism in the Oeuvre of Aris Kalaizis

Prof. Dr. August Heuser signs in his essay a par­al­lel between Paul Klee " Angelus of Novus " and Aris Kalaizis' image "make/​believe". In it he sub­or­din­ates among oth­er things to both artists a mes­si­an­ic impulse which rebels against a mater­i­al­ist his­tor­ic­al understanding. The ques­tion, what real­ity may be, has been answered fre­quently and vari­ously…

My Driving Force in my Impatience

An Inter­view between the philo­soph­er Max Loren­zen and Aris Kala­izis about work­ing abroad, loneli­ness, beau­ti­ful­ness and the unity of contrasts

The Most Essential Things Lie in That which is Concealed

A dis­cus­sion about abstrac­tion in fig­ur­at­ive paint­ings, art and non-art and the dis­tance between him and seri­al-paint­ings. Form­ally strict, he revolts against the mer­ci­less decon­struc­tion of the mod­ern age. Since he doesn't endeavor to unravel or to demys­ti­fy, we are hence­forth even more induced to enter the realm of what is pos­sible to experience.

On the Uncanny Reccurence of the Foreign

The Aus­tri­an cur­at­or Dr. Peter Ass­mann describes in his essay the appear­ence of the real in Leipzig-artist, Aris Kala­izis paint­ings. There­fore is » view­ers own 'dark room' « (Alfred Kubin) an essen­tial aspect of every view­er in every art

Painter of the North, Painter of the South

In this text describes the ar-his­tor­i­an Prof. Dr. Michael Scholz-Haensel the paint­ing of St. Bartho­lomew by Aris Kala­izis under inclu­sion of art-his­tor­ic­al aspects. Fur­ther­more he sees in the paint­er a per­son­i­fied mer­ger of the north­ern and south­ern hemisphere

A Conflict Incited by me, as Part of my Nature

Soci­olo­gist Jan Siegt ques­tioned in 1997 the young academy-gradu­ate Aris Kala­izis, in his first inter­view about abstrac­tion, the polar­it­ies as well as the term of the "dynam­ic tra­di­tion"

Paintings with a future history

The Dutch museum-dir­ect­or Dr. Harry Tupan describes the nar­rat­ive ele­ments at the example of two paint­ings Aris Kalaizis' and the Leipzig School

An Introduction to a Painter's Oeuvre

Paul Henri Camp­bell describes in his text the numinouse in the work of Aris Kala­izis. Besides, he lights up in view of the ori­gin, the work­ing pro­cess of the Leipzig painter … The mater­i­al, out of which the paint­er Aris Kala­izis from Leipzig (Ger­many) cre­ates his works, is hard to handle. His mater­i­al is numin­ous; or maybe, put dif­fer­ently: he works with the imma­ter­i­al­ity of bound­ar­ies, bor­ders, and thresholds. And by prob­ing the lim­in­al joints of real­ity…

Impulse of Joy. The Painter Aris Kalaizis and the Actor Christian Berkel

Anja Jahns describes fer­tile respect between the Ber­liner act­or Chris­ti­an Berkel as well as the inhab­it­ant of Leipzig paint­er Aris Kalaizis

The Arrival of the Pope - the painting "make/believe" by Aris Kalaizis

Mrs. Prof. Regina Radlbeck-Oss­mann is teach­ing sys­tem­at­ic­al theo­logy. In her essay she approaches the com­pact paint­ing of Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis "make/​believe" from 2012. In the face of the angel she recog­nizes scep­ti­cism towards the Ger­man pope Bene­dikt. This paint­ing is still far from every stig­mat­iz­a­tion. Hence, she demands the view­er to become act­ive independently.

A second story by Christoph Keller after a Kalaizis-painting

In Switzer­land born and in New York liv­ing author Chris­toph Keller "The Inter­fer­ence of Angels" sketches with the second story to an oth­er Leipzig-Kala­izis paint­ing an absurd par­al­lel world

Manchester. A third story after a Kalaizis-painting

In Switzer­land borned and in New York liv­ing author Chris­toph Keller (2009) writes with his third story to a paint­ing of Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis "Manchester". A sur­really story between sky and hell

WHAT TO LOOK FOR: The Struggle Against Photographic Vision

Dr. phil. Tom Huhn teaches aes­thet­ics and philo­sophy at the School of Visu­al Arts (NYC). In his essay he leads us the New Leipzig School – paint­er Aris Kala­izis into the break place between pho­to­graph and painting

Where the Shadows Dwell

The New York art-crit­ic Car­ol Strick­land stamped in 2006 for the first time the term of the Sot­toreal­ism. In this essay she gives explan­a­tions to sev­er­al paint­ings of New Leipzig School paint­er Aris Kalaizis.

Making Sky. A first story after a painting by Aris Kalaizis

In Switzer­land born and in New York liv­ing author Chris­toph Keller takes up the absurdity of the paint­ing with a first story to the Kala­izis-paint­ing "Mak­ing Sky" (2009) and trans­fers this in a lit­er­ary world

Tension, Uneasiness, Curiosity

In this text cir­cum­scribes the Dres den­crit­ic and cur­at­or, Susanne Alt­mann, the Leipzig Aris Kalaizis' world as a claus­tro­phobic ten­sion space in which the fig­ures seem to be on the edge of the selfresolution

Sketches of a nachmodern aesthetics

A philo­soph­ic­al treat­ise of Max Loren­zen in whom the often seem­ing doubl­eg­ang­er-motive should be caught in the paint­ings of Aris Kala­izis, at the same time as a pos­sib­il­ity form for a double ground. An attempt of an interpretation

Focused Contingency

The Ber­lin journ­al­ist Tom Mus­troph describes 15 years after the wall came down in his essay the Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis and his hunt for images, the time in the GDR as well and his love to soccer

Detour as a Route to Unity and Order

In this essay the New York based art-crit­ic Car­ol Strick­land stamped the term of the Sot­toreal­is­mus in rela­tion to Leipzig School paint­er Aris Kala­izis for the first time. In addi­tion, some inter­est­ing inter­pret­a­tions to the amer­ic­an paint­ings are in it

Hidden images of the inexpressible

In this text describes Dr. Peter Schlueter the image and the search behind the image on sev­er­al examples of Leipzig paint­er Aris Kala­izis. Besides, there ori­gin­ate worth read­ing obser­va­tions and image-analyses

The most essential things lie in that which is concealed

Jan Siegt describes in this artist's‑discussion the Leipzig-based artist Aris Kala­izis as a cryptic paint­er who rebels with form­al sever­ity, against the piti­less decon­struc­tion of our mod­ern age. In this inter­view becomes clear that his start­ing point will be nev­er based on desi­pher­ing or demystification

Paintings that come from a Inner Felling

Dr. Peter Schlüter under­stands Aris Kala­izis a cryptic paint­er who rebels with form­al sever­ity, against the piti­less decon­struc­tion of our mod­ern age. In this art­icle treated the paint­ings from 2001 to 2003