Works by Dimitrios Porgazian at Altenburg & Co 

‘Visual Variation’ at Altenburg & Co is an exhibition of paintings by South Coast artist Dimitrios Porgazian. Viewers often overlook the physical properties of paint and few know the history of pigments. Well, this is an artist who revels in working thick oil colour onto canvas. He’s not doing this as some ‘art’ thing in itself but to record his responses to doorways, flowers, vases and broad sea vistas. In doing so he connects with the transformation of painterly technique that followed from the invention of the paint tube around 1850 and the introduction of new colours as a result of scientific leaps and bounds in the 19th through to the 20th century. Since then chrome yellow may be set next to alizarin crimson creating an effect akin to, say, 1960s hi-fi recording and sound reproduction. Dimitrios instinctively yet daringly juxtaposes strong colours in a way that causes each to shine. And he doesn’t do this in a tight, self-conscious manner but with relaxed confidence. His brush is drawing the objects expressively in thick paint which builds upon itself so that, close up, the surface appears as interesting as each composition does when viewed from a few paces away. Of course most of these paintings, Hibiscus for instance, use powerful colour to depict and connect the subject with day to day consciousness. Under the Orange Tree does the same thing while the garden chair it contains brings French Impressionism to mind without being a take-off of any particular practitioner. Wander around, enjoy the paint, the representation and the curiously calming subject matter.