Markos Kampanis

Artist Statement

My artworks have developed over many decades and explore a wide range of themes, techniques, and concerns. I have never followed a single style or subject; instead, I have allowed my painting to evolve through exploration of painterly solutions across media and ideas, alongside both artistic practice and theoretical engagement. I am not interested in a particular style, but in experimentation and movement, valuing ethos over a recognizable visual signature. The deliberate creation of a brand has never been my concern.
A central focus of my work is the relationship between tradition and contemporary language. My engagement with religious murals and numerous painting projects within the monastic society of Mount Athos has been especially influential. Dialogue between tradition and modernity continues to shape my thinking. I am also drawn to the relationship between text and image beyond illustration, the act of painting itself, and the world of the studio, through which art history is explored and reinterpreted in painterly terms.

History of art become a few years ago the subject of my painting. Using the tree as a point of reference—as it has been represented throughout history, from antiquity to the modern era and from East to West—relationships between different historical periods are revealed, as well as affinities between seemingly different aesthetic approaches. The manner of painting is what essentially determines the content of art, rather than the subject itself.
In recent years, ruins and the topography of the Odyssey have become major themes in my work. While my work has often been described as realist, I have recently shifted toward abstraction, particularly within the Odyssey series. Texture and materiality become key vehicles of meaning.