The retrospective exhibition “Markos Kambanis, 1990-2020: a multidimensional creator” will open on Tuesday 19 November at 7 pm.

Initially, the event was presented at the National Library of Greece (Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre) under the scientific curatorship of George Mylonas (December 2023 – February 2024).

At Teloglion the exhibition is curated by Nikolaos Vianas and Rafaela Nika.

The General Director of the Teloglion Foundation, Professor Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Alexandra Goulaki – Voutyra notes that “the exhibition of Markos Kambanis complements in the most appropriate way the exhibition “Sikeliotis/Tassos: a friendship with common roots” that we are also hosting at this time”.

1990 marks a turning point in the work of the painter Markos Kambanis, when he visits Mount Athos for the first time. From then on, he began a long and fruitful collaboration with the monastic institutions. During his frequent visits, he paints the Mount Athos landscape and executes mural commissions for monasteries, but without abandoning his other thematic or stylistic interests. The painting series ‘Trees’, ‘Ruins’, the autobiographical series ‘365’ and engraving are key points in his career during these thirty years. His work links traditional teachings with contemporary artistic pursuits.

Markos Kambanis was born in 1955 and studied painting in London where he lived until 1980. His work was greatly influenced by his frequent visits to Paris and his long stay in Florence. He is primarily a painter and engraver, and has worked extensively on ecclesiastical art, particularly frescoes (the monasteries of Simon Petra, Iviron, Vatopaidi, St Catherine of Sinai and in private chapels). At the same time, his role in the effort to promote and study Mount Athos engraving and the painters whose work is related to Mount Athos, especially Spyros Papaloukas, is important. His illustrations adorn books of many publishing houses (Astir, Indiktos, Hestia, Athens Editions, Phoenix Publications, etc.), while he has occasionally worked in theatre scenography.

His first exhibition was held at the “ORA” Artistic Cultural Centre in 1979 and since then more than 20 solo exhibitions have followed. Apart from private art galleries, his work has been presented at the 15th Alexandria Biennale, the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, the French Institute of Thessaloniki, the Historical and Folklore Museum of Aegina, the Mount Athos Hestia, the Panorama Cultural Society, the Foundation for Continental Studies, the Giorgio de Chirico Art Centre, the Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology and elsewhere.