Paul Anagnostopoulos&nbsp;(b. 1991 Merrick, NY) is an artist whose paintings explore mythological desire and melancholy through contemporary queer narratives. He graduated with his MFA in Studio Art from CUNY Hunter College in 2023 and earned his BFA in Studio Art and Art History from New York University in 2013. Anagnostopoulos presented solo exhibitions at Dinner Gallery (New York, NY), Leslie-Lohman Project Space (New York, NY), and GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (Reading, Pennsylvania). His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art Archives and Library, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale University. Anagnostopoulos has participated in 10 acclaimed artist residencies in the states and abroad, most notably the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), the Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and the Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (Reykjavík, Iceland). His work has been featured in Hyperallergic, New American Paintings, Artnet News, and VICE. Anagnostopoulos is based in Queens, NY.

<h3>Interview: </h3>Can you discuss the use of landscape within your work?I see each painting as a portal to a timeless realm, an exploration of a universal understanding of “paradise”. All of the landscapes are from my photos or drawings. I’ve had the chance to travel a ton thanks to many artist residencies over the years. I’ve developed connections to these places and deeply care about the time I spent there. Whether it be above the clouds in Maui, behind the waterfalls of Southern Iceland, or in the jungles of Riviera Maya- my environment strongly influences me and permeates into my paintings.Can you speak about the role of geometry in your work?With a lot of my recent works, I was thinking about breaking up the square and the rectangle. While preparing for a solo show at the Leslie-Lohman Project Space in Soho, a perfect square gallery space, I realized the space with my rectangular and square canvases was just too square. That led me to begin exploring circles, ovals, and triangles. Considering my love for ancient history and Renaissance painting, it made a lot of sense to start making tondos.&nbsp;Tell us about your process. I typically work on three to four paintings at a time. When I get in the zone, bouncing between canvases I lose track of time. That meditative trance when time just sort of stops is my favorite part of painting.&nbsp;I do have a lot of plans for my work and everything is super regimented, but things change depending on how I respond to the painting in progress. I always start with drawings. I had a computer that was way too old to handle Photoshop so I did my own sort of bootleg Photoshop for a while, where I would just draw on different layers of tracing paper. I would have one layer for the figures, one layer for the florals, and so on. Everything was broken up into layers to figure out the composition. Then the final drawing would be based off of the final layering. If a flower didn't work, or if the figure didn't work with the sort of composition, that would be an easy way for me to switch it out before I commit to the painting.My best ideas come to me when I'm not thinking about painting. I'll be in a museum, I'll be driving, I'll be out with friends, etc and I could see a certain image or see the way the light hits something and that will spark an idea. From there, I'll go through all of my saved references.&nbsp; My work is heavily based in research. I'm very interested in ancient/classical history, the Renaissance, Medieval art, pretty much most of art history prior to our time. When I'm planning paintings in my sketchbook, they aren't so much about drawing, but more about writing. I'll do quick thumbnail drawings surrounded by words to begin building the image.I pretty much save everything. I have books and books of plans for paintings that will go into larger or other works. They sometimes repeat when I'm really interested in a certain image or composition. I've mixed a bunch of swatches of colors that I like to use.&nbsp; I write what paint combination it is on the back to build my whole library of color formulas. I'll usually start thinking about a painting in terms of a few colors. I pull from sunsets, closeups of flowers, or larger landscape photos that I've taken. I figure that if a palette works in nature, then it’s going to work in a painting.&nbsp;

<h2>News </h2>​<a href="https://www.ochigallery.com/exhibition/paul-anagnostopoulos/" alt="Transfer My Tragedy" target="_blank" class="on">Transfer My Tragedy</a>,&nbsp;Ochi Projects, Online Solo, Apr&nbsp;5&nbsp;- May 10 ​<a target="_blank" href="https://www.uppermarketgallery.com/gallery-exhibition-graphite-stew" alt="Graphite Stew" class="on">Graphite Stew</a>, Upper Market Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Apr 16 - May 14 <a href="https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/issues/152" alt="Northeast Issue #152" target="_blank">Northeast Issue #152</a>,&nbsp;New American Paintings, Print + Online <a href="https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/issues/153" alt="MFA Issue #153" target="_blank">MFA Issue #153</a>,&nbsp;New American Paintings, Print + Online <a target="_blank" href="https://www.out.com/art/2022/4/08/paul-anagnostopoulos-gay-artist-brings-greek-homoerotic-subtext-forefront" alt="Out Magazine&nbsp;Feature">Out Magazine&nbsp;Feature</a>, Online

What are you working on now? The big thing that I've been working towards this past year is a solo show with Dinner Gallery opening this September. One of the pieces I’m working on for that show is the biggest painting I've ever made; it has been really interesting and challenging to scale up and see how the work changes. I have a solo show that recently launched online with<span style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow: visible; color: inherit; display: inline;">&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ochigallery.com/exhibition/paul-anagnostopoulos/" alt="OCHI Projects in LA" target="_blank">OCHI Projects in LA</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow: visible; color: inherit; display: inline;">&nbsp;and am in a group exhibition of all graphite drawings with<span style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow: visible; color: inherit; display: inline;">&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.uppermarketgallery.com/" alt="Upper Market Gallery">Upper Market Gallery</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 0px; -webkit-user-drag: none; overflow: visible; color: inherit; display: inline;">&nbsp;in San Francisco. It's the first time I'm showing a drawing. Working with graphite was a way to explore luminosity and depth without the many variables color provides. I've been bringing that discovery into my painting; everything I do feeds back into what I'm working on. I'm also pretty busy with Hunter right now. Being past the halfway point of the MFA program, I'm starting to plan my thesis work.

Paul Anagnostopoulos is an artist working in acrylic and oil painting. Explore artists and artwork on Testudo. 

Paul Anagnostopoulos

"Visually I wanted to emphasize my investigation of depth versus flatness in a more obvious way, with the painting being divided into line and form. Conceptually it serves as a memorial to an earlier, lost queer generation."- Paul Anagnostopoulos<hr class="__se__solid"><h4>Building a contemporary art collection is a lifelong journey that is made more accessible with Testudo. Whether you are just learning about art collecting or have already started your collection, we invite you to&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://testudomkt.com/editorial/talk-with-testudo" alt="talk with us">talk with us</a>!</h4>

I Swear I Loved You is an original painting by artist Paul Anagnostopoulos. Explore one of a kind artworks by emerging artists on Testudo.

I Swear I Loved You

paul.anagnostopoulos@gmail.com

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I Swear I Loved You

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Building a contemporary art collection is a lifelong journey that is made more accessible with Testudo. Whether you are just learning about art collecting or have already started your collection, we invite you to talk with us!

Paul Anagnostopoulos

Questions about the artwork, purchasing, or shipping?

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