By Christel Citko, Art Source
There are artists who make you think and there are artists who make you smile. There are artists who entrance you with stories and others who have a feeling for color, texture and form. Finding one artist with all those talents, however, is almost impossible. Meet that rarity: Satori Gregorakis, a brilliant painter who until recently has been one of the best-kept secrets in contemporary art. Satori Gregorakis’ artwork is full of surprises. Every canvas revels in the artist's sense of humor, each painting a visual rendering of a clever turn on a common phrase. Despite his humorous nature, however, Satori is a seriously skilled painter. He is endlessly intrigued by visual imaginings that reside in the realm between reality and fantasy, and he is clearly able to render these imaginings brilliantly. His artwork is highly narrative in nature; his paintings convey an almost dream-like quality to the bemused viewer. Satori moves in and out of visual themes and story lines. Compelled to create imagery where he uses a combination of highly stylized composition, light and contrasting colors, his goal is to apply all three skillfully, thereby drawing the viewer into his paintings without overpowering or confusing. Trying to explain the Satori artistry, you search for comparisons in art history; among the painters who come to mind are Thomas Cole and Frederic Church of the Hudson River School, groundbreaking Surrealists like Salvador Dali and René Magritte, naïve painter Henri Rousseau, the masterful colorists Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, and even Andy Warhol. Because of the humor in so much of Satori’s work, it is at first easy to overlook the deeper meanings buried in the heart of each painting.
By Christel Citko, Art Source
Satori Gregorakis (Long Island, N.Y., 1943-) Studied at SUNY Farmingdale (1964-67) Columbia University (1967-68) and University of Washington. (1968-1972) (1988-1990) Satori is committed to beauty, exploring and developing new ideas, as his resolve for diversity continues. In this pursuit, he acquiesces to the mystery and challenges of painting in the style of old masters, and is guided by the spontaneity of his imagination in abstract painting.