Nicolas Karakatsanis

DISGRACERS

 – 

‘DISGRACERS’ is the 4th Brussels’ solo show by critically acclaimed photographer Nicolas Karakatsanis. The inspirational seed for the series was planted years ago when visiting The Met in New York, Nicolas was struck by a series of works depicting falling figures by the late 16th, early 17th century artist, Hendrick Goltzius who - not unlike Nicolas himself - chased after technical and poetic understanding of different media and apparatuses with a quiet but fierce ambition.

Nicolas’ remarkable way of pickling bodies in their surroundings so the former cannot be recalled without the latter has made his one-off works into much sought-after artefacts by lovers and collectors of photography around the world. For ‘DISGRACERS’ the ante is upped when the inspiration of a painting becomes a photo, which then becomes an abstraction in and of itself. You might see bodies falling any which way into liquid voids, classic forms being catapulted into timelessness and conflicting energies finding a calm that may or may not be everlasting, all coinciding with portraiture redefined. But, you will only get to do so if you show up to the exhibit at Alice Gallery. No extra ‘editions’ of these works are made available after the show. Luckily, it’s more than worth the trip because Nicolas Karakatsanis’ aversion to reproduction of his own art is only matched by his distaste for stagnancy. While pushing against the currently accepted norm of the virtually endless cloning of artwork, he also relentlessly thrusts against his own boundaries as an artist and artisan. Visitors of the exhibit will be rewarded with a progressive and exclusive experience that can never be relived. Meaning: don’t look for a hashtag. There will be none.

About Nicolas Karakatsanis Nicolas Karakatsanis is a Belgian photographer and Director of Photography of notable international renown. His singular approach to art finds expression ranging from feature-length cinema to music production, short films, advertising and fine art photography. The unmistakable, painterly and elementally compelling - almost chemical - sensibilities of his work have garnered Karakatsanis praise and an ardent following in every chosen discipline. After gaining widespread prominence lensing the Academy Award-nominated ‘Bullhead’ in 2009, Nicolas Karakatsanis has gone on to produce consistently eminent work from film festival and photo expo high-flyers to campaigns for icons like Prada, Apple and Mercedes. Karakatsanis’ recent cinematographic endeavour, ‘I, Tonya’, has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards and 5 BAFTA’s with 2 more feature films in post-production at the time of writing.

Dominique Nzeyimana

  • Among the forty films to his credit, there are also I, Tonya (by Gillepsie with Margot Robbien, Sebastian Stan, 2018), Le Fidèle ( by Roskam with Matthias Schoenaerts , Adèle Exarchopoulos, 2017) , Triple 9 ( by John Hillcoat with Casey Affleck, 2016), The Drop (by Roskam with Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, 2014), The Loft (by Van Looy with Karl Urban, James Mardsen, Wentworth Miller, 2014), Violet (by Bas Devos with Cesar De Sutter, 2014).

Next exhibition