John ASLANIDIS
JOHN ASLANIDIS (painter, musician, sound, installation, and conceptual artist) has been exhibiting regularly since the early 1990s in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Berlin, and New York, including several site-specific painting and sound installations at the University of Western Sydney, Swinburne University in Melbourne, and the Australian Consulate in New York.
Aslanidis’s works have been included in a number of important contemporary art surveys at National Gallery of Victoria, The Arts Centre (Melbourne), Heide MoMA (Melbourne), The Ian Potter Museum (University of Melbourne), Drill Hall Gallery (Australian National University), Plimsol Gallery (University of Tasmania), and Korean Cultural Foundation (Seoul).
His notable site-specific commissions include Sonic 74 for Ovolo Hotels in Hong Kong; Sonic Network 11 for the Hamer Hall, Melbourne; and Sonic Network 18 for Longchamp Maison in Tokyo. Aslanidis’s works have been acquired by QAGOMA, Heide MoMA, Artbank, the Art Centre (Melbourne), NERAM (Armidale), University of Sydney, Justin House Museum (Melbourne), and notable corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad.
Artist’s Notes:
In the Sonic Network series, I use a set of mathematical intervals to compose the paintings: these are relative to a symmetrical grid on each of the canvases.
This drawing that I use as a reference point to compose my paintings is akin to an algorithm or “musical score.” It allows me to improvise when composing the paintings and arbitrarily choose any of the eight points on each canvas to create complex compositions. They are underpinned by a structured approach, which appear at first glance to be random. The intention is to create imagery where there is no starting or finishing point, capturing a fragment of infinity. In this regard my work has a strong correlation with emergence theory, were complex patterns emerge out of simple interactions.
This systematic and interdisciplinary approach has a strong correlation with music, mathematics and science. The vibration created by the kinetic resonance of the sonic network series occupies a sensory dimension, which exists between sound and vision.
Conceptually, I am not trying to illustrate sound but, rather, give a visual expression to its physicality. My concern is with the physical reaction the viewer has to my paintings. There is an experience of an audible hum produced by looking at my works. This idea is closely related to the phenomenon of synaesthesia. A perceptual and serialized approach with conceptual and systematic underpinnings, adopting an idiosyncratic approach, which challenges conventional doctrines and interpretations of art history.
I have explored this area further collaborating with sound artists formerly in a subcultural context as a member of the Clan Analogue a collective of sound and visual artists in the mid to late 1990s. Later in the early 2000s my art was represented on a Sydney/Melbourne based electronic music label, Zonar Recordings. My paintings were represented on this label in the same context as the sound artists who were represented by the label.
In more recent times, I have collaborated with a Berlin based sound artist Brian May, presenting the paintings in gallery spaces in the format of painting/sound installations. Through arranging sounds produced by reading the oscillating and kaleidoscopic variations of colour and tone present within my painting, May created immersive soundscapes that directly relate to the colours, moiré patterns, and compositions I have put down on the canvas.
The overall visual effect being one of a perpetual change, with the intention of disorientating the viewer and a creating a contemplative optimism.
John Aslanidis 2021
Selected Recent Solo Exhibition
2021
Sonic network no.17 Revisited, Gallery 9, Sydney
2020
Intersection, collaboration with Mayonaize, West Side Place Artcade, Melbourne
2018
Sonic no.68, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2017
Sonic Network no.17, Gallery 9, Sydney
2016
Sonic Series 2005-2011, curated by Jane O’Neill Australian Consul General, New York
Sonic New Wave, Ethan Cohen Gallery, New York
Sonic Network no.15, Galerie Kai Hilgemann @ Prosecco, Berlin
2015
Selection of works from the 1990s, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Intersection, collaboration with Mayonaize, Juddy Roller, Melbourne
Sonic Network no.14, Gallery 9, Sydney
2014
Sonic Network no.15, Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane
2013
Sonic Network, Kai Hilgemann Gallery, Berlin
Sonic Network no.13, collaboration with Brian May, Gallery 9, Sydney
2012
Sonic Fragments, Ethan Cohan Fine Arts, Beacon USA Sonic Network no.8, collaboration with Brian May, Substation, Melbourne
Sonic Network no.9, collaboration with Brian May, White Box, New York
2011
Sonic Network no.9, collaboration with Brian May, dr Julius | ap, Berlin
1993 - 2010: regular solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, New York, Berlin.
Selected Recent Group Shows
2019
Circulation, Blue Rider Art, Taipei Taiwan
2018
New Optics 3, Museum of Modern Art Hunfeld Germany Talent Show, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts New York
Patterns of the invisible Hilgemann Projects Berlin
2017
New Optics Galerie Husam Offenbach Germany
As of Now Ethan Cohen Fine Arts New York
2016
How to Picture Living Systems KLI institute Klosterneuberg Austria
Visions of Utopia curated by Andrew Christofides Woollongong Art Gallery
Interference Nurture art New York
WAR a Playground perspective The Armoury
2015
Eyes score: The Audible image Town Hall Galley Hawthorn Arts Centre
After 65 The Legacy of OP Latrobe Regional Gallery
2014
Colour/Music Drill Hall Gallery Australian National University
2013
Melbourne Now National Gallery of Victoria Light Space Projects, Gallery H Bangkok, Thailand ABSTRACTIONS, Galerie Kai Higemann Berlin Germany The Sharper edge, Ethan Cohan Fine Arts New York
2012
Finding our New Fort Kunsthalle Beacon NY USA Future Shock One-Two Internationale Neue Konkrete + dr. Julius | ap Berlin
Structure and Emergence, Lafayette College Easton Pennsylvania, MDC Freedom Tower Gallery Miami Florida, University Gallery school of Fine Arts Gainesville Florida
2011
Sound and Vision McKenzie Fine Art New York USA Sounds Good Location One New York USA
Together in Harmony Korean Cultural Foundation Seoul
1993 - 2010: regular inclusion in curated contemporary art exhibitions Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Moscow, Berlin, New York, etc
Awards and Prizes
1990
Mercedes Benz Youth Art Scholarship Award
1993, 94, 97
NSW Ministry of the Arts NAVA Marketing Grant
2003
Export and touring fund Arts Victoria
Pollock Krasner Art Foundation grant
2006
New work grant established Artist Category Australia Council for the Arts
2010
Skills and Development Grant Australia Council for the Arts
2016
Skills and Arts Development Grant Australia council for the Arts International Studio and Curatorial Program New York Australia Council for the Arts
Selected Commissions
2012
Sonic Network no.11, Hamer Hall, the Arts Centre, Melbourne
2017
Sonic Network no.18, Longchamp Maison Omatesando Tokyo
2018
Sonic no.72, East Brunswick Village, Melbourne
2019
Sonic no.74, Ovolo Hotel, Hong Kong China
Selected Collections
Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane;
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
The Arts Centre, Melbourne
NERAM, Armidale (NSW)
University of Sydney, Sydney
Justin House Museum, Melbourne
Artbank
Corporate and Private Collections in Australia and abroad.
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