Athens,   Paris,   São   Paulo,   New   York                          Angelos Camillos
New York, 2000

For over half a century, VIavianos and I share peripatetic memories: Greece in our boyhood, Paris in our student years, Brazil during much of our adult life and

New York in our mature years. It is with a special pride and affection that we represent the work of this perennial friend who is above all an accomplished and talented sculptor.

Vlavianos has come a long way since those early years. I was privileged to watch his development, participate with him as he gave voice and form to the aesthetic credos which are so deeply embedded in his life and work, underlining and defining both.

Before attaining what he calls "state of permanent vigilance" where creation and research evolve simultaneously Vlavianos had to break with the inherently archaic structure that has dominated his thought and work. His art developed a product of many "laboratories", both in his native country as well as abroad, and he refined his early learnings with extraordinary resourcefulness, courage, and a mind open to the future. The result has not been a rejection of tradition, but rather an amplification of its teachings. He came to see art as a progressive process, utilizing components and information from the past while exploring the potentialities of the present. Each of his sculptures is a result of this precedent, and is the sum of a constant investigation and examination of these potentials.

His sculptures — visual metaphors — are variations of a central image, which are born as a function of this image. For Vlavianos, the multitude of diverse externals that compose the universe are manifestations of the same vital force. The co-existence of the innate impulse with the intellectual rationality inherent in Vlavianos’ art has spontaneously and atavistically reflected the presence of both the Apollonian and the Dionysian.

Although ideas do not depend on the means, aesthetics do. In his work, Vlavianos uses the tools and technology of his craft in a continuous exploration of these means to attain his expressive goal. It is not by chance that he chooses steel. In its bending, welding, and modeling, he manages to capture an essence: the moment where shape becomes form and the momentary gesture is registered forever, impervious to change.

His endless fascination with sculpture and his constant investigation of its possibilities is both a challenge and a labor of love. As his ideas progress from sketch — an indication cast on paper — to final definition, Vlavianos’ absorption with his craft is reinforced by his belief in essential values, and the result is an integrated statement of power, clarity, and reason.

Angelos Camillos
New York, 2000