Markos Kampanis: Painting on Mount Athos
Series 1
Mount Athos, the famous monastic area in Northern Greece, home to centuries old monastic institutions, the very heart of Orthodox belief worldwide, as seen through the eyes of contemporary Greek artist, Markos Kampanis.
A great many artists have regularly visited the Holy Mountain, since the 19th century. Following this lead, the relationship of Markos Kampanis with the community of Mount Athos began in 1990 and through his numerous visits there, he became emotionally and artistically bound with the place and the people. His artistic work involved paintings, drawings, prints of the landscape but also works for specific commissions such as church murals and book illustrations.
The artist is also a curator of the Mount Athos Art Archives of Simonos Petra Monastery dealing with contemporary art related to Athos as well as with the history of Athonite printmaking of the last four centuries.
During 2010 the Byzantine Museum in Athens staged a retrospective exhibition of all the works done by the artist since his first visit.
The artist approaches the depiction of the monasteries and nature through various perspectives revealing an anxious soul and an equally restless eye that seeks for myriad different ways to express the atmosphere, the religiosity, the natural and cultural richness and many other aspects, either through sharp contrasts of black and white in engravings or through the rich variations of colors in painting.
The first part of this presentation focuses on his paintings and drawings while the second part to follow shortly will present his murals and illustrations.
MARKOS KAMPANIS is an artist, born in Athens in 1955. He has studied painting in London at Saint Martin’s School of Art. He works as a painter, print maker, book illustrator and church-mural artist.
He has had many one man group shows of his paintings in Greece and elsewhere.
His major exhibitions were held at Ora Gallery, Athens Art Gallery, Chrysothemis Gallery, Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece, French Institute of Thessaloniki, Gallery K in London. During 2010 the Byzantine Museum in Athens staged the retrospective exhibition “Painting on Mount Athos, 1990-2008” presenting his Athonite paintings of that period. An exhibition “The Museum of Trees” was shown during 2011 and centred on the depiction of trees throughout Art History. His exhibition “365” in 2013 was the result of a project where one painting was created for every single day for the length of a year.
His appreciation of Byzantine Art drove him towards religious art, including murals at Vatopaidi, Iveron and Simonos Petra monasteries of Mt.Athos, the Monastery of St. Katherine on Mt. Sinai and private chapels.
He is a curator of The Mount Athos Art Archives dealing with contemporary artistic production related to the Holy Mountain and the history of Athonite printmaking. In that capacity he has set up a printmaking studio on Mount Athos, he has edited a book on the Mt. Athos paintings of Spyros Papaloukas and has curated the exhibition “Mt. Athos in Contemporary Greek Art” for the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece.
To learn more visit www.markoskampanis.gr