California Odalisques: Paintings by Phil Joanou

Nestled amid boldly patterned florals, Phil Joanou’s luscious subjects gaze dreamily towards a landscape of their own invention.  Though his models’ languorous strength suggests an attitude that could safely be characterized as contemporary California-esque, the artist has engineered the compositions in service of a distinctly classical intent.  With a nod to Matisse and Ingres, Joanou allows his women, along with their deftly rendered physical and emotional idiosyncrasies, to occupy center stage in every canvas. 

This provocative series also showcases the artist’s consummate skills as a draftsman. The woman’s softly curving shoulders echo the clean lines of the curved frame of the sofa.  Edges of tabletops parallel the sharply etched ledge of an adjacent window.  A surreal curtain of flowers camouflages a woman standing serenely behind it.  Only her eye, shaped and colored much like the adjacent leaves, remains free of the painting’s flowered veil.

While the aforementioned works could be considered simply as continuations in the painterly tradition of celebrating the female form, Joanou is after much more.  His meticulously crafted poetic juxtapositions make visceral a contemporary infatuation with the psyche.

Over the past decade, after a lengthy and extremely successful career in advertising, Mr. Joanou’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums nationwide.  Most recently, he was featured in exhibition at the The Bakersfield Museum of Art.