James Georgopoulos (born 1966 in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...

) is a Greek-American

visual The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the ...

artist. Georgopoulos works with painting, sculpture, and video installation to address a relationship between highly skilled production techniques, pop culture, and taboo iconography. His work is in various collections, including the Panavision USA Collection. He lives and works in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed b ...

Early life

Georgopoulos was born in

, and began creating visual works at the age of 14 while at Cardigan Mountain School. His father was an art collector and became friends with many of the artists he collected, exposing Georgopoulos to their studios at a young age. Georgopoulos was mentored by Varujan Boghosian, Robert Eshoo,

Ivan Albright Ivan Le Lorraine Albright (February 20, 1897 – November 18, 1983) was an American painter, sculptor and print-maker most renowned for his self-portraits, character studies, and still lifes. Due to his technique and dark subject matter, he is of ...

and James Aponovich when he was just a teenager, leading to his eventual acceptance to

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

, which Georgopoulos declined for an opportunity in Italy. In his twenties, Georgopoulos was taken under the wing of

György Kepes György Kepes �ɟøɾɟ ˈkɛpɛʃ(October 4, 1906 – December 29, 2001) was a Hungarian-born painter, photographer, designer, educator, and art theorist. After immigrating to the U.S. in 1937, he taught design at the New Bauhaus (later the Sc ...

, who was part of the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

movement, spending many of his formative years in Kepes' studios and cites Kepes as a significant influence. Georgopoulos relocated to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in the early 1990s to work in the film industry with directors such as

Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...

and

Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...

, which eventually led to a career as an art director for commercials and music videos, including Pink Floyd's

Take it Back "Take It Back" is a song by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released as the seventh track on their 1994 in music, 1994 album ''The Division Bell''. It was also released as a single on 16 May 1994, the first from the album, and Pink Floyd's f ...

. During this time, Georgopoulos also worked on several design projects, most notably for

Eddie Sotto Edward Anthony "Eddie" Sotto III (born 1958) is an American experiential designer, mixed-media producer, and conceptualist.Patton, Phil"Rethinking Auto Showrooms: Shark Tanks, Anyone?" ''The New York Times'', October 25, 2006 Sotto was formerly the ...

and

Current TV Current TV was an American television channel which broadcast from August 1, 2005, to August 20, 2013. Prior INdTV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, with Ronald Burkle, each held a sizable stake in Current TV. Comcast and DirecTV each held a smalle ...

Work

In his paintings, Georgopoulos employs an assortment of subject matter, including guns used in

blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Bl ...

action films, cameras used to film classics, glossy automobile finishes, pornographic abstraction, and sexuality in

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

to address issues of copyright protection, censorship, and the highly designed objects used in the creation of popular culture. Using techniques that combine the artist’s intention, Georgopoulos has consistently worked with imagery that is generally considered off-limits. His work with weaponry, film, automobiles, and pornography is an exploration into male identity, and a self-inquiry into the reasons these objects and subjects are charged with the historical residue they contain. Georgopoulos' paintings are meant to emulate the flat, transparent texture of the automobile-obsessed Finish Fetish artists of the 1960s such as Larry Bell,

Billy Al Bengston Billy Al Bengston (June 7, 1934 – October 8, 2022) was an American visual artist and sculptor who lived and worked in Venice, California, and Honolulu, Hawaii. Bengston was probably best known for work he created that reflected California's " ...

, and Craig Kaufman, while his work with pornographic images—which, despite his tendency to use organic pixilated techniques, have been banned from galleries—calls to mind the controversial pieces that landed

Wallace Berman Wallace "Wally" Berman (February 18, 1926 – February 18, 1976) was an American experimental filmmaker, assemblage, and collage artist and a crucial figure in the history of post-war California art. Personal life and education Wallace Berman ...

in jail in the 1960s. Georgopoulos has been featured in several publications including ''

Flaunt ''Flaunt'' is an American fashion and culture magazine based in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with an office in New York. History The magazine was founded in 1998 by the current C.E.O. Luis Barajas, and Creative Director Jim Turner, who had previous ...

''
Bullett Magazine
'' Treats Magazine'', and

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...

. He has exhibited internationally, including a solo exhibition at Photo L.A. 2014. He was included in

Phillips de Pury Phillips, formerly known as Phillips the Auctioneers (briefly as Phillips de Pury), is a British auction house. It was founded in London in 1796, and has head offices in London and in New York City. It was owned by the Mercury Group, a Russian ...

’s contemporary sale in 2012, and was featured as the artist of honor in 2012 at the Art of Elysium Fifth Annual Heaven Gala.

Guns of Cinema

His series ''Guns of Cinema'', a compilation of gun images from iconic motion pictures and television includes screen-used guns used by

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

in Scarface,

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

in her music video "Born This Way",

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes ''Carrie'' (19 ...

Pulp Fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhame ...

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

in Terminator 2: Judgment Day,

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

in RED and

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

. Georgopoulos photographs the live firearms at secured armories with

large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame o ...

film cameras. With the negatives, Georgopoulos makes silver gelatin prints by hand in his

darkroom and mounts the prints on composite panel. He then hand paints around the image with custom mixed layers of paint before multi layers of epoxy resin and automotive finish are applied to the top, achieving a mirror like reflective surface.

Cameras of Cinema

Similar to ''Guns of Cinema'', the ''Cameras of Cinema'' series expresses Georgopoulos' affinity for the film and television industry as he photographed a number of motion picture and television cameras which were used to make

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

, Michael Jackson's Thriller music video,

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

Kill Bill ''Kill Bill: Volume 1'' is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) an ...

, and

Apocalypto ''Apocalypto'' () is a 2006 action adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by Mel Gibson. The film features a cast of Native American and Indigenous Mexican actors consisting of Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dalia H ...

, among others.

Sculpture

Identity also plays a role in a series of sculptural retellings of Greek mythologies that Georgopoulos began working on at the end of 2013. This series contains works that are highly technical, utilizing found industrial elements to create idols of

Greek gods The following is a list of gods, goddesses, and many other divine and semi-divine figures from ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion. Immortals The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes. A temple would house the ...

, which serves to continue his exploration into post-industrial ideas of manufacture and mythmaking. He is also developing a series of sculptures that include video installations housed in shaped automobile frames, unveiled to the public in fall 2014 with ''Vacation''. For ''There is No End'', a 2015 solo exhibition, Georgopoulos follows in the same lineage of artists such as John Chamberlain or even

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

, by using objects – old car parts, disused slot machines and other jettisoned materials – the artist investigates the self-cannibalizing culture of consumerism. In ''Rodeo Drive'' Georgopoulos displays the wrecked body of a

Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a full-sized luxury car produced by British automaker Rolls-Royce in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first of the marque to use unitary body and chassis construction. The Silver Shadow was produced ...

, powder coated in white and dripping in automotive gold chrome against a scaled video of famed

Rodeo Drive Rodeo Drive is a street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles. Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is at its intersection with Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The ...

, playing via projection. In 2016, Georgopoulos' solo exhibition, ''The Earth is Flat'', critiques the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the values and hazards implicit to autonomous computing. This new body of work addresses technology’s integration and prevalence in the alteration of human life in the modern age. The artist’s four sculptures, ''Luddite'', ''Zeus'', ''Weight Watcher'' and ''Autonomous X12'' themselves are superficially interconnected as to insinuate that technology has implemented itself as an indissoluble event in human history.

Shadows

Georgopoulos explores ways to deconstruct the car in a non-traditional visual form so the viewer can appreciate the massive size and power of a car but in the confines of an interior space. The result is a 1:1 scale flat panel homage to the vintage automobile; made in the measurement specifications (length and width) of the manufacturer dimensions, giving the appearance of the car being flattened from above. The exotic super flats are the first exploration of this series, in tribute to the most celebrated super car brands,

Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) ...

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

, and

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

Selected exhibitions

Georgopoulos in front of one of his new element series, Pixel Pieces

2016 * The Earth is Flat, Mama Gallery, Los Angeles 2015 * There is No End, Mama Gallery, Los Angeles * Pieces of Heaven Art Auction 2014
Group show "Erection" at MAMA Gallery

Group show "Winter Sol" at J-Go Gallery

Photochemical Darkroom installation piece, The Art of Elysium, Photo LA
* Pieces of Heaven Art Auction * LA Art Show for Axiom Contemporary 2013
Art Market Hamptons - Axiom Contemporary Gallery featuring Georgopoulos

LA Art Show for Art of Elysium
*Pieces of Heaven Art Auction 2012
Solo show “Second Amendment” at Guy Hepner Contemporary

Group show “Gun Down The Town” at Gallery 1927

Group show "Massively Small" at J-Go Gallery

* Pieces of Heaven Art Auction
Venice Art Walk at Google

AAF NYC

Art Platform LA

Art Hamptons

LAAS Los Angeles Art Show for Axiom Contemporary
2011
Solo show "Hollywood Arsenal" at Siren Studios

Solo show "Guns of Cinema" at Lurie Gallery

Group show "Loaded Symbols" at J-Go Gallery
* Pieces of Heaven Art Auction

Art Hamptons

AAF NYC

Art Basel @ RED DOT Miami
2010
Group show "For the love of Haiti" at Studio Morke
* Art Bin South London Gallery, London
Art Basel @ RED DOT Miami

Pop Up Gun Store at The Distillery, Venice Art Walk

References

External links

James Georgopoulos Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgopoulos, James 1966 births Living people Artists from New Hampshire 20th-century American painters 20th-century American sculptors American installation artists American contemporary painters 21st-century American painters People from Manchester, New Hampshire American people of Greek descent 21st-century American sculptors