12th (ΙΒ’) PAINTING STUDIO / DIRECTOR: POLYDOROS KARYOFYLLIS (POKA-YIO)
Our aim
To redefine artistic practice through redefinition of art education.
The 12th Painting and Expanded Media Studio of the Athens School of Fine Arts aims to offer students an educational experience based on three central pillars: Personal Development, Community – Collectivity, and Interdisciplinary Practice.
Personal Development seeks to foster artistic action rooted in self-observation and personal reflection, as well as in the development of the artistic self as a set of choices that go beyond the autonomy of the aesthetic product.
By building a Community – Collectivity, students are encouraged to engage in experimental artistic practices centered on the collaborative organization of artistic actions. This collective process fosters a critical and contemporary understanding of otherness, gender identity, the embodied and digital self, sexuality, cultural identity, political and intellectual plurality, coexistence, and the complex social dynamics that shape the production of contemporary art. Within this framework, mutual support and empathy among students are actively cultivated. Students are also introduced to collaborative tools and methodologies, gaining practical experience through their participation in group workshops. These cultivated perspectives and cooperative practices provide the foundation for creative experimentation and the realization of collective works and projects, all situated within the broader context of contemporary artistic research and practice.
Through Interdisciplinary Practice, students begin to comprehend the expanded field of contemporary art and the diverse media employed within it. This exposure encourages a multifaceted understanding of artistic practice as it intersects with other disciplines, expanding the boundaries of what constitutes artistic inquiry today.
POKA-YIO / Associate Professor
Poka-Yio is an artist and curator. He is also a strategic consultant and a coach.
He has a five year diploma in Painting and an MA in Digital Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts. He is co-founder and director of the Athens Biennale. He has been the co-founder and director of A-Station, Athens Center for Contemporary Art until 2004. He has exhibited his works, staged his performances and curated shows in Greece and internationally.
Poka-Yio’s diverse artistic work comprises of painting, performances, theater, films and curating. His main work thematic and key narrative is the perpetual oscillation between Attraction and Repulsion during the era of the Culture of Desire.
Email: poka-yio@asfa.gr
MANOS TSICHLIS / Laboratory Teaching Staff
He was born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1971. He studied Law at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki (1997) and Painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2004). He holds a MA in Methodology in Architectural Research (Planning, Space, Culture) from the National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture.
He creates sculptural objects and installations through which he explores the material metaphors and shifts produced by the involvement of language, political and cultural representations, collective and personal mythologies. (Selective exhibitions: Athens Biennale MONODROME 2011, Athens Remap 2011, Athens is now-Gallery Alibi 2017, L’ esprit de l’escalier- Aghios Nikolaos Crete 2019, Death in Athens, Yellow Brick Athens 2020, Lato/Safe Space, Crete 2021, There was land here before, Elafonissos 2022).
As a member of the curatorial board of the YELLOW BRICK art space, he has co-curated a series of exhibitions ( Integration or creation? Movement, installation and production of identities – Nea Ionia Attica 1923-2021, Traditional typography and modern artistic practices, Mystery 19 -Initiation as Methodology,within the framework of Eleusis European Capital of Culture 2023 organization)
He was also co-founder of the artistic fanzine KYPSELI (2011-12).
He has taught at primary and secondary schools (2005-21), at the 8th Painting Class of ASFA (2007-8) and at the National University of Athens (2014-15). From October 2021 on , he teaches at the 12th Painting and Expanded Media Lab of ASFA.
Email: emtsichlis@asfa.gr