Gerasimos Floratos
In conversation with Carlo McCormick
"Both their artistic idioms are ostensibly non-modernist. They gather inspiration from popular culture, without however transferring it one to one, as postmodern artists tend to do."
— Franz W. Kaiser, Karel Appel Foundation
Artist Gerasimos Floratos and critic and curator Carlo McCormick discuss Floratos' artistic dialogue with Karel Appel and the importance of New York City in shaping both of their work. They also reflect on Appel's legacy, brought into dialogue with Floratos’ latest works in the exhibition ‘Southpaw: Gerasimos Floratos & Karel Appel’ at Almine Rech New York, Tribeca, March 13 to April 25, 2026 at Almine Rech, New York.
Gerasimos Floratos (b. 1986) lives and works in New York City. Floratos grew up enmeshed within the overwhelming sensorial experience that is Times Square, the pounding commercial and touristic heart of the city, a place the artist refers to as “the center of the center”. To this day, his studio is stationed there, where he continues to work and live. Laden with the sonic qualities of city life, Floratos’ psycho-figurative bodies simultaneously map the internal workings of the artist's mind, and the visceral experience of his physical environment in what he describes as a form of “psychogeography”, a term borrowed from Guy Debord, a founding member of the Situationist International movement of the 1960s.
Qualifying Karel Appel (b.1921, Amsterdam- d.2006, Zurich) as one of the most internationally renowned Dutch artists of the 20th century may be misleading, as he had already left the Netherlands for good by 1950, in order to pursue his long career predominantly between Paris and New York. From this perspective, he may be considered as truly international, not belonging to one particular country in the first place.
