The series is entitled From Key West to Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. (Via Everglades, Miami, Palm Beach and NASA) and it is exhibited in the first room of the gallery and right next to a single work entitled In Guns We Trust (banknotes), which was painted in the spring of 2022.
The narration of the exhibition continues to the second room of the gallery, where two older paintings are on display; an illustration of a fictional currency banknote named NOMISMA and a 245-star U.S. American flag.
‘Nomisma’ is a word of Greek origins, which means “coin” or “currency” used in financial terminology. In this work the artist took recognizable elements from the 50 and 500-euro banknotes, in order to create a currency of zero value. The painting entitled a 245-star U.S. American flag instead, showcases the existing 50 states of the country plus all the 195 registered countries of the globe (as listed by the end of 2019), 245 in total.
Special thanks to M.G. & J.A.
Panos Balomenos (b. 1976 Athens, Greece) lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.
His practice comprises paintings, sculptures, installations and garments, which are specifically created for the performative agendas of his diverse projects. His aim, as a politically and socially invested artist, is to offer audiences both useful social criticism and personal catharsis.
He completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan, Italy, Städelschule in Frankfurt, Germany and Kuvataideakatemia in Helsinki, Finland where he got his MFA in 2005 His work has been shown in Gallery spaces, Cultural Institutions and Museums including Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku, Finland (2005), Platform Garantí, Istanbul, Turkey (2006), Vienna International Apartment, Brussels, Belgium (2007 and 2010), Camões Institute, Lisbon, Portugal (2008), Museo Baluarte dela Candelaria, Cádiz, Spain (2008), Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland (2011), Center for Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Greece (2014), Porvoo Art Hall, Porvoo, Finland (2014), Poriginal Gallery, Pori, Finland (2015), Art-Athina, Athens, Greece (2014-2016), Museum of Applied Arts, Belgrade, Serbia (2016), Onassis Foundation, Athens, Greece (2016), ARTag Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (2018), Saw Gallery, Ottawa, Canada (2019), Vantaa Art Museum Artsi, Vantaa, Finland (2021) and Rankka Gallery, Helsinki, Finland (2022).
The exhibition was supported by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.
