In “Searching for the End, Odyssey” Stathis Petropoulos offers a personal visual reading of the journey of Odysseus to his homeland, Ithaca, creating a new reading of the Homeric epic. The series depicts the challenges of gods and the elements of nature that the hero surpasses thanks to his resourceful mind, in dynamic compositions with theatrical elements, limited color palettes and original illustrations.
“This venture was something I wanted to accomplish for quite some time. I was curious what showing my work through the gallery system could do for me as a professional illustrator.
In order to find my subject for the exhibition, I looked into the rich world Greek Mythology. After some time and research, I focused on Homer’s Odyssey. The world Homer crafted for his epic poem, fascinated me. I then, carefully chose passages and phrases from the translated texts that resonated visually in my mind with how I imagined Odysseus’ long and arduous journey towards his home island of Ithaca, to be.
The goal was to alter my visual approach to the story and go against the styles of illustration that have existed so far in books on the subject. My fascination with narrative, theatrical set and costume design and limited colour pallets drove me to create images that were based on Homer’s texts but at the same time, gave the viewer a new perspective to behold.
As a result, I showed seventeen paintings of scenes, characters and environments from the Odyssey. The exhibition was a success making my work visible to a wider audience and cementing my belief that visually decoding the written word is what I love to do!”
“Searching for the End, Odyssey” was presented at the Skoufa Gallery in Athens.
