Jannis Varelas: Sleep My Little Sheep Sleep

May 12-September 3, 2012

Curated by Xenia Kalpaktsoglou 

Greek artist, Jannis Varelas, spent three weeks in residence at the CAC creating new works for this, his first solo museum show in the U.S. Thanks to support from the Mayerson Family Foundations, Varelas also worked with a group of high school students from the School for Creative and Performing Arts. Students in the school's Visual ArtEnsemble program were given the opportunity to work alongside Varelas in the gallery and learn about his large-scale multimedia drawings and collages first hand. They created their own artwork throughout the day while being personally coached by the artist. They learned about the techniques he uses and they discussed, in depth, the themes prevalent in his work—specifically using the figure to represent the social environment in Western culture after the 2008 economic crash. At the end of the intense day-long session, the students worked with Varelas to combine their individually-created pieces into one, large composite work. 

Jannis Varelas (b. 1977) lives and works in Athens and Vienna. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts, University of Fine Arts in Barcelona, and The London Royal College of Arts. This work has been included in exhibitions at the New Museum, Prospect. 1 New Orleans Art Biennale and the Acropolis Museum. This is his firstone-person exhibition in the US. 

Xenia Kalpaktsoglou is a co-director and curator of the Athens Biennale. She is also a member of the three person curatorial collective, XYZ. Previously she was the director of the DESTE Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Arts. 

A special thanks to: Alice F. Weston; ArtsWave Corporate Partner: Duke Energy Corporation