George Ioannou

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

George Ioannou was born in Croydon, South London in 1974.
His early inspiration came from the comic book heroes of
the 1960s and 1970s, and having gained his art A-Level,
his early ambition was to be a cartoonist. For a time though,
he found himself working in estate agency, though he never
lost his passion for art, and was always more drawn to the
interior aesthetic rather than the bricks and mortar of the
properties he worked with.
To answer his desire to be involved in a more creative
profession, Ioannou studied television and film, which in
turn brought him back to the screen icons who had
influenced his life, whose craft he admired, such as
Al Pacino. He then began to take on numerous acting
roles, both on the big screen, including Die Another Day,
and on television, in The Bill.
Ultimately, it was buying his own house that brought Ioannou
back to creating art. Faced with bare walls, he visited art
galleries, but couldn’t find anything that truly inspired him.
So he painted his first canvas, of Al Pacino in Scarface;
and as he says: “the house loved it…!”.
Eventually, with the encouragement of everyone who saw
and loved Al Pacino, Ioannou was persuaded to paint a
series of work for publication. For his first series of ‘icon’
images, Ioannou has painted, by choice, on the films and
film stars that inspired him personally the most.
He works in acrylic on canvas, taking many hours to select
and draw the initial image by hand, determining the
balance of form and shading needed to capture the mood
of the piece. He then chooses and mixes his colours to
further enhance the vibrancy and emotion of the image,
before finally applying paint to canvas. While George
Ioannou’s work may be referenced to that of the great
1960s artist Andy Warhol and the whole ‘pop-art’ genre,
he reintroduces us to this style in a new Millennium with his
own unique palette.