Kostis Fokas, born in Athens, Greece, is a conceptual photographer whose artistic practice revolves around the exploration of the complexities of the human body.
Fokas’ works have been exhibited in the USA and Europe including, The Louvre Museum, Colette in Paris, Art Basel Miami, the Benaki Museum in Athens and the Museum of Modern Art in Thessaloniki and Crete among others. He has collaborated with and published his work in Zeit Magazine, Les Inrockuptibles, i-D, Dazed and Confused, The advocate, Gay times, Gayletter magazine and many more international publications, websites and art books.
This year Fokas produced his first self published art book with title , “Kostis Fokas ”, which covers a selection of more than 120 photographs spanning 7 years of photographic work.
Fokas work investigates the complexities of gender, sexuality, and identity through pictorial representations of the human body. In an attempt to capture the social panorama of contemporary life, the artist offers a discreet look at the body as a site of desire, fantasy, submission, and oppression.
Unlike sentimental depictions or explicit narratives where sexuality and desire have been co-opted to fit in the broad swath of social and public life, Fokas’ approach to the body is rather detached. Like a Cartesian mechanical eye, Fokas observes from the position of the spectator, scrutinizing himself and his subjects with a tantalizing pleasure. Bodies and fragmentary body parts set in bizarre and vulnerable positions are juxtaposed with wild landscapes and the striking beauty of the Greek summer.
Fokas boldly strips his model-friends down in front of the lens; yet, their poses are far from sexualized. A physical and spatial tension unfolds, as playful and surreal corporeal formations engage in a choreographic interplay of attraction, seduction, detachment, and resistance. Flirting with autonomy and vulnerability, his subjects are often witnessed as being in distress. Their desire to seduce and to connect is nothing but profound. Undoubtedly, in Fokas’ visual topography the human body fights, rebels and resists, infinitely.
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