The emphasis of existence

Simon Apostolski is a young artist who elaborates his considerations very concisely, thoughtfully and consequently from one artistic style to another, which allows him to adequately outline the esotery and trajectory of his artistic commitment, as well as his conceptual viewpoint. He is an artist who is not in favor of frequent self-promotions (this is his first serious solo exhibition since he graduated in 2005); hes rather inclined to maturing, creation and empiric approach to a rational process called artistic opus.
In order to start the evaluation of Apostolskis latest researches I found it necessary to first make a short review of his earlier artistic commitment, from 2004 and 2005, since some of the characteristics of his latest compositional and esthetical preoccupations are related, i.e. derived from these early works.

The early works
A closed Euclidian space and an isolated hyper-realistically depicted object (pomegranate, pomegranate seed, seal, cross etc.) are in the focus of his interests. Along with these elements he includes a text or a preliminary drawing as a visual constituent that complements the technical arrangement of the space, as well as a wax seal which occurs as the element of his artistic, personal symbol - signature. His works are made in various media, from painting and drawing to collage, with interesting geometric cross sections and pasted segments. The coloring is reduced to minimum and is geometrically arranged. His works are hued with earthly, dim tones, and only the realistically depicted objects are painted with vivid and intense colors.
After this phase Apostolski devoted to showing the human body i.e. particular, framed parts of it which were at that particular moment the focus of his interest and occupied his interest (parts of female nude, tattoos on particular body parts, etc.) with a faint erotic aspect. The artist still insists on a rather realistic display of the substance of the body and its proportional characteristics and arrangement. In some works of this phase the background is shown clear, tonally monochromic, without any other additional interventions, while in others we still feel the influences of his earlier phase, with mathematically arranged space which included geometric areas, evenly painted, a text, a seal, etc.

Fallen Angels - general review
By analogy to the former developing phases, Apostolski gradually comes with the idea of bringing forth the cycle Fallen Angels, which in itself also includes two individual partitions, the later of which already pertaining to a certain artistic freedom, better mastery, both in the drawing and painting skills which he uses together and combined. He resumed his intention to explore the human body, this time seeking for an appropriate, yet not so pretty, repertoire to take his inspiration from. Elaborating the tiny border between the ugly and the pretty as esthetic elements, he picked the concept of the Fallen Angels which alone speaks about the opposed concepts. Actually, his topic repertoire is proceeding upon the edge of the socially committed issues, i.e. through the chosen characters he tries to show the dark side of the human existence. With precise observation and psychological diving Apostolski chose his models to be dark-skinned (women, children, grown-ups) which have seduced him not only with their story but also with the particularity of their appearance, their facial features, their smooth and rounded sculls, the expression in their eyes, etc. The canvases of this cycle (regardless of the partition they belong to) feature people who are most often alone and speechlessly tell the spectators their lives. And their lives are usually sad, miserable, almost never expressionless. Children with lost eyes, old people whose time scars (wrinkles) tell of their worries for both their own existence and the existence of their loved ones, pretty women, grown men in hopeless situations This topic substance probably seems pathetic, but the artistic discourse and the visual sensations show a feeling of a non-pathetic dignity.
In the completion of this cycle Apostolski relied on the photography as a basis, but the specific framing, the change of the composition whole and the addition of particular characteristics present these works with a specific vividness. The realism, from hyper or super or radical (as some art historians like to name it) kind are per se one of the dominant objectives of this artist.

Fallen Angels - Part One
In the first part of the Fallen Angels Simon mostly included portrait representations, rarely full body figures. He maintained the mood from his former phase featured as certain architectural ambience or mathematical-geometrical arrangement of the space. In these works the human figure is enclosed in a certain imaginary space. In the works featuring architectural elements, both literal and simplified, they are presented with a