Deep in allegory and intense emotion, the paintings of Giannis Stratis speak of possession and nature, and the history of human ambition. Disturbed by cataclysmic advances in technology—such as the atomic bomb—and by the ever-mounting Western penchant for getting and spending, Stratis creates canvases that expose the impact of these driving forces. “I see man directly absorbed and divided by his material values,” Stratis states, “Too weak to react in his positive and human development.” Stratis' counterpoints to these destructive urges are nature and spirituality; the works ultimately reveal his optimism that these elements will eventually triumph. Exhibited in Verve and Reverence at Agora Gallery, 530 West 25 th St, Chelsea, from September 28 through October 18, Giannis Stratis' “Blossom After Nuclear Disaster,” a work of passionate reds and earth tones, illustrates this positive rebirth.

Though Stratis' work is largely expressive rather than literal, a portion of Stratis' catalogue can be read as a text to reveal a recurring theme. Two works, “King Minos—Amorgos Island” and “The Red Legend of Porto Leone,” contain anthropomorphic elements with tangible emotion, and speak to the essential hopelessness of the ingrained human desire to possess all that we see.

“King Minos—Amorgos” references in its title a Greek island once captured by the Cretans, mythically ruled by Minos. In the painting, the dominating, humanized mountainside stares out of the picture plane with a glazed, gluttonously sated expression; it cradles a pristine, white church. The work's palette, specifically the white of the building and the blue of the background, immediately identifies the landscape with its location, and the architecture of the tiny church is positively Greek. It is at once a powerful and light-hearted painting: the landscape looms ominously above the iconic building, but the personified form's expression is comical.

“The Red Legend of Porto Leone” refers to the medieval port of Athens, now known as Pireaus. The talismanic figure in the painting, replete with abstract, natural forms, addresses the viewer with a quixotic expression. The aggressive reds and yellows of the palette put forth an attitude that the visage of the figure cannot match. It appears that the form cannot live up to its ambition; this lopsided relationship is the primary source of tension in the painting.

Futility is a central element to both “Minos—Amorgos” and “Red Legend.” In each canvas we see elements of aggression and force, which are then contradicted. We are left with a satirical, empty display of power and a mischievous pantheism in which ill-tempered spirits, embodied in things, strike out with dull claws. “Porto Leone” begins with an angry palette and ends in an ambiguous expression; the conquest of Amorgos ends in a mild case of indigestion. And in the latter, the triumphal force is the spirituality of the clean, white church. All the conceits and preoccupations of Man fall away in the end, and the positive element, the simple spirit of the place, ultimately triumphs.

Stratis' works illustrate societal problems through a complex, historical discussion of the desires and urges of mankind. We are presented, quite literally, with the ugly face of our natural impulses, which direct us toward disaster. But in each work we are left with a hard kernel of optimism, like a seed that survives our terrible human follies, and blossoms.

-- Adam Grassi