Paul Anagnostopoulos
Paul Anagnostopoulos is an artist whose paintings explore mythological desire and melancholy through contemporary queer narratives. He graduated with his MFA in Studio Art from CUNY Hunter College in 2023 and earned his BFA in Studio Art and Art History from New York University in 2013. Anagnostopoulos presented solo exhibitions at Dinner Gallery (New York, NY), Leslie-Lohman Project Space (New York, NY), and GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (Reading, Pennsylvania). His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art Archives and Library, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale University. Anagnostopoulos participated in 11 artist residencies in the states and abroad, most notably the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), the Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (Reykjavík, Iceland). His work has been featured in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artnet News, and VICE.
Collect Bean: How does your painting process look like from start to finish?
Paul Anagnostopoulos: My process begins with research, both field and academic. I start with plein air drawing, figure drawing, and sketching museum antiquities along with photography. I build a library of studies and photos to reference while painting. I also complete academic research regarding their subject matter. I coalesce these ideas and references into a conceptual framework that guides the work. I build maximalist images through layers of drawings that are eventually arranged into a final composition. Next, I’ll create my palette using color and gradient tests. Once everything is determined, I transfer the drawings to the canvas and paint from background to foreground. Since I use both acrylic and oil paint, I begin with a background gradient in acrylic. From there I block out the remaining forms in acrylic, often in three layers to achieve an extremely opaque quality. Once the forms are situated, I’ll complete any acrylic painting in flat detailed areas. My final step is oil painting to render any naturalistic forms and add the final illusionistic details.
Collect Bean: What role does color play in your practice?
Paul Anagnostopoulos: Color is everything! I always begin with something hot; fiery reds, oranges, and pinks in saturated tones form the palette’s foundation. When combined with somber, darker tones- typically the complement or purples- these hues inject warmth and activate the image. For the past few years, orange tones have been the base for many of my colors, whether mixed with blues for darks or with pastels for vibrancy. It has the heat of a transitional sun. Twilights and sunsets often inspire my color choices. This time of day is full of contradicting possibilities, both enchanting and ominous, melancholic yet seductive. I push color up to the line of camp. I’m interested in referencing this style as a way to bring in comical innuendos, providing another facet to my melodramatic and melancholic images. My use of color also follows a relatively overlooked classical precedent, ancient art was often painted, gilded, and inlaid with colorful materials. Polychromy in classical sculpture served an illusionary purpose with strong naturalistic effects and was key to understanding these objects’ movement, emotion, and meaning.
Collect Bean: Are there any recurring themes or motifs in your art, and if so, what do they represent to you?
Paul Anagnostopoulos: A dialogue with art history is a constant theme within my practice for as long as I can remember. I grew up drawing the vases in my yiayia’s home. Countless ceramics lined her shelves and huge amphoras filled with silk flowers were in every corner. The first time I saw art historical masterpieces, they were in the form of souvenir replicas. These objects also filled my Italian grandmother’s home. Michelangelo’s Pietà sat on her kitchen counter and other Vatican treasures were scattered about. These kitschy homages to cultural greatness informed my earliest understanding of images. There’s an earnest sense of humor in the way kitsch appeals to the masses and is embedded in sentimentality. The original masterpiece is so loved and adored that it is reproduced for all to enjoy, it develops a nostalgic endurance. I create from this same understanding of art. A campy commodification layered with cultural allusions. My work shares an affinity with souvenirs: smooth surfaces, dramatic colors, cheeky humor, and art historical connotations. Images of people in my life and self-portraiture merge with cultural references to become a tender memento that operates as a symbol of adoration on multiple levels.
Collect Bean: Are there any artists or movements that have inspired or influenced your work?
Paul Anagnostopoulos: My work aggregates various histories and symbols across time and cultures. I reference a myriad of movements in my practice, the most obvious being classical art and its many offshoots such as Renaissance art and Neoclassicism. I’m also influenced by the flat, graphic aesthetics of Japanese woodblock prints and illuminated manuscripts. In terms of a specific artist, I always credit Roy Lichtenstein as my first inspiration. As a kid, I was always drawing comic books. For me playing outside was sitting in the grass with my crayons. When I was about 8 years old, my parents took me to the MoMA in NY for the first time and I fell in love with Lichtenstein’s work— specifically Drowning Girl. I was mesmerized. My precocious self thought, if he can paint comics and be an artist in a museum, why can’t I?
Collect Bean: How does where you grew up influence your work?
Paul Anagnostopoulos: I grew up on Long Island and so many of my childhood memories are from summer days at the beach. Spending time visiting grandparents in Florida cemented the coastal environment as a recurrent place within my work. There was such an unprecedented sense of wonder I experienced at these places, which is why they stuck with me. For this show in particular, I wanted to explore my aesthetic interests in these locations through tropical motifs, sunset colors, and neon lights.
