“View Master” is the title of an exhibition by Lila Belivanaki, which will be held at the Sianti Gallery from April 8 to April 30, 2022. The title, inspired by the famous game of the 80s, depicts exactly that which it denotes: contemporary stories of everyday life presented with an almost surrealistic bluntness. Yet everything unfolds with a satiric attitude on a 3D background. The protagonists are recognizably familiar – even though their physical features have been altered – thereby proving that each and every one of us has his own special role on the stage of life.

The curator of this artistic presentation of everyday life is Giorgos Milonas. As he points out: “Lila Belivanaki has a very serious approach on things, expressed in her characters’ lively and pulsating language. You could describe the overall idea of her work as a kind of graphic novel, an ethnographical mural transcending spatial borders. Her artistic style is defined by the use and mastery of her artistic means: the ball-pen in multiple colors. Easy to use and very rich in its expressive potential, the ball-pen becomes in her hand an instrument of painted embroidery. The result is a product of tenuous craftmanship as each scene becomes integrated to the whole. Even though the artist’s endeavors in the art of comic are well in the past, she always remains loyal during the artistic process to the principles of micrography, no matter the scale of the work.”

In this way, Lila Belivanaki has the ability of narrating different stories created out of vivid situations frozen in time, while remaining true to her own personal space and time. It is a universe where the relationships and emotions of the participating figures are expressed with a touch of exaggeration. Giorgos Milonas observes that “Her artistic language has an intensity of color which reminds us of Todd Schorr’s color palette, while her drawings flirt with the playful spirit of Matthew Stone. Her works are filled with anime and manga comic elements. Apart form the comic spirit, which is in the core of international pop culture, she is inspired by people she discovers or photographs on the internet. They are contemporary people: people from Netflix or a dance company, whom she introduces into her work. Common social types which make it easy for the viewers to relate to. They are the people all around us. Her works are deeply theatrical. As she, herself often says: ‘I like making little maquettes’. This prompts her to stage different happenings in each and every one of her compositions. This is especially true when it comes to smaller works under the (non-coincidental) title “Backstage” where she manages to create small settings of great depth, with great emphasis in detail. As for her larger compositions, that which often comes out as grotesque or childish, denotes a kind of irony concerning the human condition.”

At the end of the day, Lila paints with chilling calmness, devotion and mastery as her choreographed acts of violence and passion linger between serious worry and superfluous entertainment, between reality and illusion. This is why Giorgos Milonas feels such a strong urge to defend Lila’s promethical characters with great passion: “Lila Belivanaki has a special gift: she never allows us to believe that what we see isn’t real, that it’s a dream or a fairytale. There is always a realistic base, but the reality she refers to is weird, enigmatic and terrifying. It constantly lingers between comedy and tragedy, but not in an orthodox way: there is no harmony between them. The comic is incompatible with the tragic and, of course, it is this incompatibility of the comic element which heightens the terror. All of her characters have a promethical aura around them. The greater they appear to the eyes of the viewer, the harder their fall.”