In a short review of Pavlos Samios work, it is undoubtedly obvious that the latter belongs to the very few painters in the 20th century with an experiential approach to painting itself, an artist boldly and respectfully bearing his vision along with his country’s artistic background in painting.

A glance at his 30 works of art in acrylics currently exhibited suffices for the visitor to realize that the particular style of this exhibition is attributed to the fact that it represents a summary, a personal account given by the artist himself, a recognition, a look back on a long career in art that has constantly borne images, symbols, ideas, emotions.

This, in turn, creates a necessity felt by the painter for introspection whereupon he re-interprets consciously his experiences and symbols, he re-negotiates previous thematic choices and he evaluates again his perseverance in depicting small, repeated daily moments which often provide him with the motive and the starting point for a subject and the creation of a work of art, “yet any approaches stemming from the painting surpass the subject itself and what is deemed as an aspect of daily life is turned into a descriptive, metaphysical and eternal aspect”.

With regard to the fundamental question whether thought precedes emotion in painting or not, it is obvious that for Pavlos Samios each work entity triggers emotions relating to a passion for life, a love for common, daily stories, a love for a time whose recollection may be seen in a small, red, beloved radio without batteries on which the artist would attempt to listen to opera music. This radio or any other objects like the high-heeled shoes or the bags that are often included or repeatedly appear in the artist’s work are the very symbols of an era, a situation, an emotion. The painter has to encapsulate emotions, tense, and the aura of a particular situation before putting them across to the visitor. Samios attempts to and succeeds in conveying the notions and pulses in a story, triggering sensation and then enlarging it, consummating it. Just as it happens in the case of R. Montherwell, whose collages represented a sort of a personal diary through the depiction of various objects, so it is in Pavlos Samios’ work where objects or even human figures form the starting point for an experiential account that brings authenticity of creation, yet this does not imply that the artist’s thought and imagination are defined by a relativity similar to the notion of relativity associated with space-time. More than often, the interpretation of such work is completed by or depends on the perceptive “quest” of the visitors who, in turn, decide on the “end” they wish.