This week we are honoured to bring you an exclusive interview with Kostas Papakostas. Since becoming a full-time artist in 2019, he has exhibited internationally and his work can be found in private and corporate collections.

The London-based artist has kindly carved out some time in his busy schedule to speak with us at Hang-Up, and we couldn't be happier. Keep reading for the full interview, where Papakostas divulges the intricate details of his intuitive process, his monochromatic palette, and his endeavours in Asia and beyond.

KP: I don’t plan my paintings in advance, they are the result of an intuitive process, which creates space for unpredictability and invites imperfections. Both these elements are at the core of my process.

I custom-make my brushes and am currently learning to make my own pigments but the preparation is primarily mental. Sometimes it takes hours, days or even weeks until the conditions feel right to push my brush against the canvas.

Once I am in that space a natural flow of work emerges.

I work in solitude. I lay my canvas on the floor and I move continuously around it creating layers with intuitive gestures until the painting breaks free from my control and starts to develop its own destiny. This is when it all happens.

I never go back to make changes, each piece is a recording of a gesture or a choreography that extends beyond me.

KP: My paintings are mostly monochromatic. I am interested in a narrative that triggers emotion through tension, texture, rhythm, movement and depth and I find that monochrome reveals these qualities in their rawest, most honest form.

I select the colours in advance in order to minimise any decision-making during my process. If I feel that a colour carries the desired energy, I will sometimes spend three or four months working with just that colour. It is often a liberating and healing affair.