HUFree Gallery: Alex Kalogerakis - Poverties Ov The Imagination

Alex Kalogerakis: Poverties Ov The Imagination

• 28 August to 11 December 2025
• HUFree: Gallery
• Western Library, 254 Boulevard, HU3 3ED

Alex Kalogerakis is a HU3 born and bred artist. He studied Painting at Camberwell School of Art and now works in his studio off Anlaby Road. His painting approach is experimental which sees him using drawing and painting on varied surfaces and paper. It is also a responses to “the gold” HU3 offers which he explores during the day and night. This gold includes abandoned or overlooked places, people, strangers, family and friends.

“I never thought Hull would make its way into my art, but I know I'm on the right path because deep down my images feel true to me, they surprise me and satisfy something I was after since I was a kid that I felt was missing. Other than just being a joy to do, art helps me emotionally reconcile life, it's a record of my faith and always felt like a duty I was relieved to fulfil.

My first time seeing the Lord Line building was like being struck by a lightning bolt - these buildings at the edge of the world said something important to me I could never put into words; it seemed to point to something beyond itself the way a dream might. My efforts now include the slow unravelling of moments of inspiration like this. It drove home that Hull is a microcosm, its issues indicative of humanity at large.

I’ve always sought out better worldviews than the one handed down to us. In those rare moments of awe we transcend our everyday consciousness and become aware of ourselves as part of a larger process. Visionary mystics, romantic poets and rigorous scientists view nature as fundamentally one substance - the imagination. I grew up digesting people like Carl Jung who mapped the ‘otherworld’ of mythology or what we call the unconscious mind - its traces in Hull are captured by artists from Throbbing Gristle to John Atkinson Grimshaw, or the superstitions documented by Alec Gill.

My influences such as William Blake, Frank Auerbach, Andrei Tarkovsky or Alan Moore are a testament to the way art can shape perception because life is made of poetic metaphor. This is somewhere where past decades still echo very loud. My work is part of this tradition of re-enchanting a place by articulating that vast mental world we inherit. At the very least I want to leave behind evidence that somebody saw every aspect of where I was born as sacred, and didn't have to look further than all of our lives to find infinite meaning”

Alex Kalogerakis

You can see more work by Alex on Instagram @infilthitshallbefound

HuFree Gallery

The HuFree: Gallery, located on the top floor of Western Library, opened in May 2025. It showcases and celebrates photography, film-making and print inspired artwork that arises from working class life in HU3 and Hull. Here we will take a closer look, together, at the people and lives, past and present, that are often hidden or paid scant attention. We will explore too, the national and international links that reflect our beautifully diverse HU3 community, and shape who we are.

For more information about HuFree Gallery visit www.eofus.co.uk and @eofushu3 on Facebook or Instagram.

Opening times:

• Monday 1.00 – 6.00
• Tuesday 9.30 -1.30
• Thursday 1.00 – 6.00
• Saturday 10.00 -1.00

No need to book - just turn up!