Βy Venia Pastaka

Art Historian

Kostas Papanikolaou, an important representative of modern Greek painting, presents a series of works from throughout his artistic career, curated by art historian Spyros Moschonas and divided thematically into the four seasons of the year. Throughout his artistic quest, the artist deals with the human form, the sea, the countryside, the city, and the urban interior. Through these motifs, Papanikolaou explores man’s relationship with space and time, focusing on decay, continuity, and the small poetic moments of everyday life.

The painter consistently moves between two major themes: landscape and contemporary ethnography. His works, whether set in the city or the countryside, exude a particular rhythm of life, a rhythm that transcends the mechanical ticking of the clock. His figures, everyday people, live, move, and converse in familiar spaces: in cafes and taverns, on beaches, in streets and squares, in the countryside of Kaisariani or in the landscape of Galatas. They are not simply figures, but carriers of a calm, almost meditative sense of time – an existence “outside of time.”

In this exhibition, Papanikolaou uses the constructed scheme of the four seasons as an interpretative framework. Each season functions as an autonomous unit, as a way of reflecting on the flow of time and the transformation of life. At the center of each unit is a large painting, around which smaller works—drawings, sketches, and watercolors—are arranged, creating a multi-layered narrative, a visual diary of human life. Through this structure, key questions posed by the exhibition curator emerge: How is the passage of time experienced through the seasons? How is human experience reflected in simple, everyday events – in the pruning of trees, in the waves of the sea, in fishing or in an afternoon chat on the balcony? How is the ordinary transformed into poetry?

Kostas Papanikolaou’s painting is a reflection on human presence and the flow of time. With simple compositions, pure colors, and a strong sense of light, the artist manages to transform the simplicity of the moment into a timeless commentary on life and humanity. The Four Seasons invite the viewer to wander through the changes of time and recognize, through painting, their own place in the eternal passage of the seasons.