2022. Oil/canvas, 120 x 200 cm, lo. le. sign. and dat. Kalaizis 2022, on the reverse titled, sign. and dat. again as well as inscribed 'Leipzig', unframed. - What is real, what is illusion? Behind a theatre curtain the stage set of an industrial ruin opens up, through a window the view of a vast landscape. Or is it just painted, like the graffiti on the brick wall? Did the man in the hat think all this up, is he the architect, or just a viewer like us, in another plane of the picture? Kalaizis' large-scale major work takes up the old tradition of trompe l'oeil and poses questions to which the viewer must respond. Where does reality end, where does art begin? - German-Greek painter of the New Leipzig School. After autodidactic activity in the artistic subculture and an apprenticeship as an offset printer, K. studied from 1992-2000 at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Art under Neo Rauch and Arno Rink, ultimately as the latter's master student. He has had solo exhibitions not only in Germany, but also in New York and China. K. often paints his pictures after elaborate self-constructed stage sets, which is why very few works are created.