Anthony Koutras - Railway, 2003

Anthony Koutras

Conceptual Art

August 7, 2015

Anthony Koutras is a Canadian artist, best known for his photographic installations.

Anthony Koutras’ multi-disciplinary art background

Koutras was born in Toronto in the end of 70s. In 2010, Koutras received an M.F.A from York University, Toronto and in 2003 he graduated with a major in Photography from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto.
In 2002, Anthony Koutras began to create photographic installations that mimic elements of the public realm in order to challenge the viewer's passive encounter with the everyday.

Anthony Koutras - Maintenance (Performance & Installation), 2011
Anthony Koutras - Maintenance (Performance & Installation), 2011

His multi-disciplinary art background informs his photographic practice. Koutras’ work incorporates photography, and combines the medium with sculpture, installation and public intervention. His photo-based installations explore photography and its capacity to represent space and mimic objects. By using photography to mimic his subjects, he creates false spaces and environments, inviting viewers to interact with the installation and experience their public realm in a new perspective. Additionally, his work explores reflections on perception in relation to optics and illusion, and the visual translation of the photographic image into different forms.

The Stephen Bulger Gallery Representation

Koutras continues to be an active member in the Toronto art community - he has held four solo shows, participated in numerous group exhibitions while donated to prominent charity auctions. He is the recipient of an Ontario Arts Council production grant in 2007, the OCAD McCain Post-Graduate residency in 2005, and the DuMaurier Arts Grant in 2003. Koutras’ work can be found in numerous private collections and was published in Flash Forward 2008.
He is represented by The Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto.

Koutras’ Explication

Upon his exhibition at Bulger Gallery in 2010, Koutras has published a book titled Explication.

Anthony Koutras - EXPLICATION, book cover, 2010
Anthony Koutras - EXPLICATION, book cover, 2010

At first glance, it appears to be photographic portraits of everyday streetscape objects. But, a closer observation explains the process, the motive of the work shifts to a self-reflexive investigation into photography as a medium.
“It encapsulates elements that have been of interest to me for the majority of my art making practice: a focus on urban elements of the public space, reflections on perception in relation to optics and illusion, the photographic image as archive, and the visual translation of the photographic image into different forms. Presented through an ironically complex explication of process, the photographic veneers simultaneously conceal and speak to the medium of photography.”

Anthony Koutras currently lives and works in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Featured image: Anthony Koutras - Railway, 2003
All images copyright © the artist

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