About
Kostas Synodis's practice explores how objects can hold the attention through material behaviour, without relying on narrative or explanation. He works with materials, form, and perceptual illusion to produce situations that momentarily disrupt ways of seeing. Rather than representing images or narratives, the works are designed to hold attention through misbehaviour. With materials that act against expectation, forms that resist immediate reading, and experiences that unfold slowly. The aim is not to explain, but to test how physical presence can remain compelling, curious, and unresolved.
Synodis's sculpture is rooted in a pared-down minimalist aesthetic favouring raw materials such as resin, pigment and steel for their functional properties, textures, colours and weight. In his work, hard materials at varying scales, are stretched, softened and shaped into seemingly taut but elegant curves, always achieving a perfect sense of balance. By focussing on notions of malleability inherent in these materials, Synodis reimagines them into a new context in order to investigate their value and associations within contemporary art. In doing this, Synodis creates elegant, playful objects that question expectations of their materiality, yet sit perfectly at ease in their new form.
The concerns of his art practice echoes to his functional objects, familiar typologies that misbehave, function that become ambiguous, not absent. notably an innate understanding of the way autonomous three-dimensional objects occupy a space. While the harmonious forms of his sculpture resonate in these domestic objects, they are also greatly informed by Synodis’s sensitivity towards materials, being both sustainable and practical, that look usable but act strangely.
Born in Greece, Synodis graduated from the University of Westminster in 2013. His work has been widely exhibited in London and is included in a number of significant collections.