Kompatsiari Maria (1952)

Born in Kolindros, Pieria in 1952, she studied at the Pharmaceutical School of the University of Athens. She pursued also studies in painting and drawing and attended classes in art history and culture and educational programmes of museums and cultural institutions in Thessaloniki.
She begins to paint in the ΄80s, her early works involving various subjects—landscapes, still life, human figures and symbolic compositions. Gradually, without abandoning painting she introduces further media such as printmaking and small constructions. She focuses on exploring the script as depiction of symbols, the rendering of dynamic gestures using oil on canvas or ink on paper as well as the behaviour of materials in terms of texture, form and the transparency of colours. She combines various materials in combinations that stand out for their expressionistic style and their stark chromatic contrasts and exude a lyrical mood. In her Idiolekta series the artist attempts to combine various techniques, developing a personal idiom dominated mainly by abstraction. More recently she draws inspiration from ancient Greek signets and creates a series of works that involve combinations of different printmaking techniques on elaborate handmade paper.
She has presented her work in over 30 solo exhibitions and dozens of group shows in Greece and abroad. Her work has earned awards and distinctions in Greece, France, Italy and Japan. Her creations can be found at the ΜΟΜus - Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Macedonian Struggle, the Foundation of Thracian Art and Tradition in Xanthi, the Larissa Centre for Contemporary Art, the Gallery of the Society for Macedonian Studies, the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki, the Cultural Centre of the City of Ioannina, the Library of Alexandria, Egypt, the Union of Painting & Sculpture Museums of Istanbul, the "NPO" IMCF International Art Council Kobe, the Greek Consulate in Ashiya, Japan as well as in private collections in Greece and abroad.