Maro Michalakakos, 1967

Born in 1967 in Athens, where he continues to live and work, Maro Michalakakos studied at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy in France from 1987 to 1993, during which time (from 1988 to 1989) he was also enrolled at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Braunschweig, Germany.

Michalakakos’s works frequently include installations made of wine-colored plush trimmed to create patterns. He also produces drawings and paintings, and over the years has accumulated an archive of mythological animals, predominantly birds, meticulously depicted in watercolor, their feathers illustrated in minute detail. They are usually shown copulating with other species such as snakes and insects.

Michalakakos’s watercolor works structurally follow the style of the naturalist, ornithologist, hunter, and painter John James Audubon, whose 1838 “Birds of America” comprised 435 plates. The hand-painted works are true-to-size, and document birds in nature, including six species that are now extinct. Audubon’s work has attracted tremendous interest from naturalists, ornithologists, and the wider public ever since it was first published. In addition to elements from Audubon, in terms of both structure and scientific approach, Michalakakos’s works present a proposal for a “parallel universe” (also the title of one of the artist’s series), foreshadowing a dystopia that will take over the world in the near future. No longer organic and thus prone to mutation, this world persists on anguish, despite the consolation and rituals of mating. Its survival is contingent on forced and unsuitable couplings.