Over the past two decades John Aslanidis has explored relationships between optical and sonic art through paintings that reverberate both on the surface and off the edges of his canvases.
In much the same way that music is regulated by intervals between notes, Aslanidis uses colour and line to produce pulsating rhythmic patterns on his canvases that approximate the synaesthetic experience of observing “paintings you can hear and sound you can see”. The compositions of his works are formed out of interlocking and exponentially expanding concentric circles that are mapped out and structured by a number of mathematically positioned disturbances (disruptive frequencies). This is a calculated system he deploys to determine how layers of complex colour patterns will undulate and appear to proceed into the space of the viewer over time.
Studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before completing his Fine Arts degree at The University of Sydney’s College of Fine Arts in 1990, Aslanidis has maintained a detailed examination of the overlap between electronic music and painting. From 1995 to 1998 he was part of Clan Analogue, an inter-disciplinary collective of visual and sound based artists. More recently he has collaborated with Berlin-based sound artist Brian May to produce a number of sonic performances of his paintings (‘Sonic Network 9’ was exhibited at Dr Julius-ap in Berlin 2011 and White Box New York in 2012, and ‘Sonic Network 8’ was exhibited at The Substation in Melbourne in 2012). Recent significant exhibitions in Australia featuring Aslanidis’ work include Sight and Sound: Music and Abstraction in Australian Art, held at Arts Centre Melbourne in 2010, and Colour / Music, held at Australia National University’s Drill Hall Gallery in 2014. He has also established a substantial international career with recent activities including a five-month residency at New York’s prestigious Location One, two exhibitions in Berlin in 2011, and his work has been included in the USA-touring exhibition Structure and Emergence that explores relationships between science, mathematics and abstract visual language.
In September 2014 Art Monthly Australia magazine featured Marguerite Brown’s in-depth article on Aslanidis’ work titled “Sonic Spheres”, which can be read at: http://www.kaihilgemann.com/artists/john-aslanidis.
John Aslanidis Is represented by Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, USA [http://www.ecfa.com/ ]; Galerie Kai Hilgermann, Berlin, Germany [http://www.kaihilgemann.com/ ]; NKN Gallery, Melbourne, Australia [http://www.nkngallery.com/]; Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane, Australia [http://edwinacorlette.com/ ] and Gallery 9, Sydney, Australia [ http://www.gallery9.com.au/]
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
