CALEB KORTOKRAX

In Cloisters

ON VIEW: APRIL 20 - MAY 20, 2023

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 6:00 - 8:00PM

BALTIMORE, MD - C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present In Cloisters, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Baltimore-based artist Caleb Kortokrax. Showcasing two parallel bodies of work that examine a link to historical painting traditions, In Cloisters seamlessly combines past and present visual symbols. Layered references become tangled in our minds while we relish in fine detail and rich color.

Trompe l’oeil depictions of Romanesque architecture build high- chroma space and motif to investigate human perception. Kortokrax creates cut paper dioramas to place on his studio wall for direct reference. This process then translates into deeply saturated, impasto paintings that are as much about the Enlightenment as they are about contemporary design. Kortokrax speaks about these images as an “unlearning and relearning” of how to see. As if pulling the figures out of El Greco’s archways, these works leave vacancy for the viewer to unpack the symbolic color that remains.

In his figurative works, Kortokrax portrays serendipitous moments of classical composition. By painting images of his children in states of calm focus or sleep, he points to a deeper romanticism that occurs within the dreamlike vision of youth. These images hold the balance and polyphony of the Baroque period, while tethering us to a contemporary context with Hello Kitty fabric and plush toys. Each of the paintings presented in the exhibition builds atmosphere through smooth sfumato and subtle shifts in temperature. Together these images weave together ideas of interpersonal longing as we attempt to inhabit our omnidimensional world.

Caleb Kortokrax (b. 1987) received his MFA from the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at MICA in 2014. He has exhibited widely with notable shows at the Brauer Museum of Art (Valparaiso, IN), Sideshow Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), AUTOMAT Collective at the Crane Arts Building (Philadelphia, PA), Longwood Center for the Visual Arts (Farmville, VA), St. Charles Projects (Baltimore, MD), Kristin Michelle Mason Art Gallery at Beacon College (Leesburg, FL), De Pree Art Gallery at Hope College (Holland, MI), Mitchell Gallery at St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD), and Greenspring Art Gallery at Stevenson University (Stevenson, MD). His work has been featured in Issue No. 136 and Issue No. 148 of New American Paintings. Kortokrax was a finalist for the Bethesda Painting Awards in 2018 and a semifinalist in 2013. He was the 2018 Borgeson Artist in Residence at Hope College (Holland, MI) and the 2019 Monson Arts Resident (Monson, ME).

DIMITRA LAZARIDOU

Absence

ON VIEW: APRIL 20 - MAY 20, 2023

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 6:00 - 8:00PM

“The city is my terrain. The power and authority that it radiates is both overwhelming and breathtaking. I am cautious. I avoid abrupt moves. I am just circling her. In the Sacred Shadows album one can see trapped images struggling to return to the cosmos and escape oblivion. Just like images from the Unconscious fighting for a life of their own. In Unborderville things turn out more edgy, pushing the limits harder. As if I’m trying to decide what to do with all I have and decide my next move.”

- Dimitra Lazaridou

BALTIMORE, MD - C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present Absence, an exhibition of selected works by Greek- photographer Dimitra Lazaridou. In an investigation of light and space, Lazaridou’s dialectic images build a conversation around the need to relate to the world. Seemingly stolid at first glance, these photographs become a respite for those navigating space, looking for structure and stability. This solo exhibition spans multiple series to showcase the breathe and liemotif of the artist’s practice.

With deep influence from the Bauhaus and her studies in Berlin, Lazaridou depicts urban landscapes that loom with nonattendance. These desolate spaces derive from the artist’s ability to inhabit the world as an introvert, stating “it is just me and light.” With light as her companion, Lazaridou examines the agony of shared psychology ... survival, loneliness, wakeness ... and the beauty of city space. Her images of timeless architecture, of cast shadows, and of blank facades become personified landscapes seeped with surrealism. Devoid of the figure, these images become isolated, inviting the outliers to come in and occupy.

Dimitra Lazaridou (b. 1966, Alexandroupolis, Greece) studied visual communications and photography at the Hoschule der Künste in Berlin, Germany. Her work is included in a number of public and private collections including the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Athens, Greece), the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Thessaloniki, Greece), the Weatherspoon Art Museum at University of North Carolina (Greensboro, NC), the Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel (Athens, Greece), the Martin Z. Margulies Collection (Miami, FL), and the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD). Lazaridou recently completed a collaborative project with Dior which was presented in Dior Magazine No. 36 and Dior Cruise 2022. Lazaridou currently lives and works in Athens, Greece.