James Michalopoulos
James Michalopoulos is a celebrated New Orleans based artist. He is a contemporary of Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Eric Fischl and a school of painters that prevailed in the 1980s who glorified the representational image. He is an artist who refreshes the familiar with colors that dance vividly in and out of the canvas; he pushes and pulls the dimensions of the pigment in the same way that people move and breathe.
Michalopoulos is best known for his distinctive architectural renderings. Kevin Allman writes of his architecture, “They slope, soar and sway. Some of them rear back on their foundations, or lurch drunkenly over cracked sidewalks; others dip their balconies over the street curiously.” His representations seem to have a life of their own. There is a palpable energy and mystery in these highly original and much copied works. Also, Michalopoulos has earned a reputation for the unique musicality of his paintings. They are at once a mystical abstraction and a powerful evocation of the subjects’ spirit.