Jim Thalassoudis

The Luminous Night

20 October — 6 November 2015

Born 1962
Lives and works in Adelaide

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Represented by nanda\hobbs

Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, from 1942, today signifies the American aporia, when chinks in the armour of rugged individualism began to afford glimpses of existential doubt, disappointment, dismay. The “nighthawks” inhabit profound space—au fond—mastered geometrically and tonally to evoke other stations of the soul’s night journey. As Robert Hughes observes in American Visions (page 424): ‘You are in the real world, but it is a stranger world than we imagined.’

It is in this semi-nocturnal world that Jim Thalassoudis’s art lives. As we look at his works, we walk the streets, drive past the motels and wonder at the light that conjures more than the zenith’s transparency. Thalassoudis invites us to rediscern the ‘real’, painting worldly portals that illuminate the netherworld of our subconscious. 

The neon-filled lights that point and snake their way through our night cityscapes is a technology first used in 1910. The glow is a giant symbol of modernity. This exhibition is in part a homage to the power of signs. Indeed, the Love Art  wall-work, created in neon, signifies our obsession with bright, shiny objects. 

However, as always, at the heart of Thalassoudis’s work, paint prevails. Thus it is unmistakably the artist’s hand that paints the glowing neon lines on the advertising structures, statuesque, as another intangible power is at work in the luminescence of the lurid sky. Thalassoudis reminds us that the 24/7 turning of the diurnal to the nocturnal invites expeditions in realms and zones unavailable during dawn’s refulgence or the glare of the noonday sun. His painting is a luminous conversation with eternity. 

Ralph Hobbs
October 2015

VIEW VIDEO The Skipping Girl, Little Audrey, 2014, oil painting by Jim Thalassoudis showing the process taken to paint, incuding a timelapse segment.

VIEW ARTICLE ABOUT THIS EXHIBITION - Nelly Skoufatoglou, The Weekend Neos Kosmos, Saturday 24 October 2015

\ Exhibition featured works

Jim Thalassoudis

Day of radiance

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 51x51cm

$4,900

Jim Thalassoudis

Descent into the night

2010 \ Oil on linen \ 66x76cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

Endless Summer

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 137x167cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

I’m just happy to be here

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 35.5 x 45.5 cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

Late run

2010 \ Oil on linen \ 30.5x107.5cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

Little Audrey skipping over Melbourne

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 167x198cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

Love Art

2015 \ Neon sign, Edition size: 6 \ 60x60cm

Jim Thalassoudis

Pink Poodle Motel

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 137x167 cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

Surrender your heart

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 137x137cm

SOLD

Jim Thalassoudis

The quiet storm 2

2015 \ Oil on linen \ 96.5x96.5cm

\ News

Media

Jim Thalassoudis Article in 'Neos Kosmos', 24.10.15

27 October 2015

"Jim Thalassoudis's Luminous Night: The acclaimed artist explores the sunset, reinterpreting it as a meditation on life, death, beauty, myth and art."Nelly Skoufatoglou, The Weekend Neos Kosmos, Saturday, 24 October 2015

Read more

\ Other exhibitions

Hubert Pareroultja

"When the rain tumbles down in july"

21 March — 6 April 2024

PEOPLE,

Group Exhibition

29 February — 16 March 2024

Jonathan Dalton

MELBOURNE ART FAIR

22 February — 25 February 2024

Contact Us

to find out more about The Luminous Night.

12 - 14 Meagher Street Chippendale, NSW 2008
Opening Hours
Monday to Friday, 9.00am - 5.30pm Saturday, 11am - 4pm Closed Public Holidays (and Easter Saturday)