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BESTIARY: Bizarre Myths & Chimerical Fancies

Viktor Koen

Bestiary is the product of a long fascination with Greek mythology and early 19th Century photography. Based on a set of mostly hybrid creature descriptions and influenced by religious iconography, myth comes full circle and meets social criticism by molding these monstrous archetypes into a contemporary commentary. Most importantly, in this series, the beasts are separated from their usually singular dimension, assuming complex, tragic personalities in which monsters and heroes become difficult to tell apart.

 

Drawing from the vast pictorial collection of the US Library of Congress, these characters possess the hunting qualities of early photography, when subjects were not camera-savvy and their awe for technology was etched in their expression as, to a certain degree, their souls were captured by the lens. Their photos became psychological portraits way before my digital intervention made them supernatural. This deformed pantheon combines widely known mythical protagonists with more obscure characters from the depths of ancient Greek sources.

 

Being enamored of the beauty of beasts is an obsession that periodically creeps up on me and demands expression in mysterious ways. This time, I found the subjects of these old prints not only captivating and willing to be transformed into legendary creatures, but also open to the language of documentation and archives, including the official signing and stamping of documents. Mostly, I found that their vulnerability to the passage of time that brutally ages them also makes them visually compelling and worth preserving.

 

Bestiaries are traditionally catalogs where the natural history notes and illustration of beasts are usually accompanied by a moral lesson and this one is no different. Today, nature and science intertwine in ways that at times prove to be less than ideal and this compilation of brutes is a testament to this exact point.

 

Robert Graves’s 1955 tome, The Greek Myths, provided the core resource on the characters, and it illuminated these fascinating tales that I had only known of in their overly sanitized versions from my school years in Greece. The human, sexual, and violent dimensions of the beasts described in his texts re-sparked my interest in the subject and deeply inspired my images and symbols. Reading this book repeatedly with pen in hand, just a few kilometers from the ancient fortress of Argos, gave substance to the legends and completed my bewitchment.

About Viktor Koen

Viktor Koen holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, Israel and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of the MFA Illustration program and the BFA Graphic Design Department at SVA.
One-person exhibitions include:
Les Yper Yper Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
Type Directors Club, New York
Coningsby Gallery, London
Strychnin Gallery, Berlin
Fraser Gallery, Washington, DC
Astrolavos Gallery, Athens, Greece
Slovak National Museum, Bratislava
Photography Center of Athens
LeVall Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia,
Eirmos Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
International Month of Photography, Fillipoupolis, Bulgaria
Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles
Viridian Artists, New York City
Gazi Exhibition Complex, Athens
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Mary Anthony Galleries, New York City
Distinctions include:
2 Gold Awards — 2014 Graphis Poster Annual
Award of Excellence — Communication Arts magazine
TEDx Athens 2012 Speaker
SND Award of Excellence
2 Purchase Awards, Arcansas Art Center
First Prize, Digital Hall of Fame, Stockholm
EVGE First Prize Award, Athens
First Prize, Viridian Gallery National Juried Exhibition
Merit Award, Society of Publication Designers
International Digital Art Award, Melbourne
Kounio, Hasselblad Award, Greece
Gold Folio Award, New York City
Award for Excellence, American Design Magazine
First Prize, Bethesda International Photography Competition
His work is featured in numerous books and publications worldwide and it’s part of private and institutional collections.

photos by

Viktor Koen

Exhibition Dates

November 3, 2016 – January 5, 2017

Artist Reception

Thursday, November 3 from 6 – 9pm

Category
Gallery Exhibitions
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