A couple months ago, Victor Lizana presented an exhibition titled Anabasis at Aristotelis Nikolas Mochloulis’ apartment in Athens. A couple years earlier, Mochloulis had organized a solo exhibition in his former apartment at Lomvardou 34, and since moving to a new one at Solomon 64 has hosted exhibitions by friends, including Anabasis, which followed Lizana’s subletting and temporary residence in the apartment.
The exhibition at Akwa Ibom marks Lizana’s departure from the city and takes the form of both offering a service and receiving one. It features a selection of works previously shown in Anabasis, now installed permanently in the Akwa Ibom office, alongside works by earlier artists who participated in its program. Lizana had considered taping these works onto the streets of Athens or discarding them, but the office ultimately became a providential repository for the works—and a generous gift to the life of the room.
Lizana’s assemblages combine original acrylic paintings, watercolours, and pen drawings with various excerpted objects: cigarette packets, receipts, playing cards, among others. They are also gatherings of time, bringing together works from across his life—photographs from his teenage years alongside watercolours produced 15 years apart, and items from his more recent years. Serving as essential records of Lizana’s way of living, they form part of constellations composed of hundreds of other works, which together reflect his prolific output as a natural extension of his life and of moving between places and states of mind.
Their seemingly frivolous appearance quickly gives way to more somber expressions of angst and violence, as well as to moments of humor. The largest frieze displayed in the office turns out to feature interlude scenes from 1970s porn magazines purchased in Athens—sex scenes omitted and discarded, save for one final pornographic image that Lizana has kept but still refuses to display.
The artist Victor Lizana is ranked among the Top 1000000 on ArtFacts.