WORLDART is pleased to present In Order of Appearance, a solo exhibition by Sotiris Moldovanos, opening Saturday 29 August 2026 at the gallery’s Long Street premises in Cape Town.
In his latest solo exhibition, In Order of Appearance, Moldovanos explores identity and urban culture through the fluid dynamics of human connection. The body of work captures a range of bonds, from fleeting everyday encounters to lifelong friendships and serves as a visual anthology of the figures who enter, exit and shape our personal narratives.
Moldovanos continues to expand on the distinct visual language that has become his signature: figurative works that are carefully constructed, then deliberately broken down into bold colour fields, geometric patterns and simplified silhouettes. The figures remain grounded in anatomy but are pushed towards abstraction until they feel as if they are constantly shifting between recognition and illusion.
Facial features are intentionally removed, replaced with thick strokes of impasto paint, stripping away personal identity from the subjects and removing the distraction of specific likeness.
His paintings explore the question of identity in an increasingly image-conscious world, examining how what we wear can become a form of self-expression, signalling everything from personality and confidence to culture and belonging. By fragmenting and reconstructing his subjects through colour, pattern and abstraction, he creates works that invite multiple readings, much like identity itself: layered, evolving and rarely as straightforward as it first appears.
Sotiris Moldovanos (b. 1977) is Cape Town based, born in Johannesburg, and graduated from the Tshwane University of Technology in 1999. He paints with a preference for portraiture and figurative work that combines bold colours with geometric patterns; his figures, while anatomically accurate, are simplified into abstract outlines and silhouettes, producing an optical illusion combined with abstraction that allows viewers to form their own unique interpretation of each painting. Moldovanos has held five previous solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions.
Source: WORLDART
