Tsolis Kostas (1964)

He was born in Athens in 1964. He studied painting at the School of Visual and Applied Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1985-1990) under Vangelis Dimitreas. He presented his first solo exhibition in Thessaloniki in 1995 at the Modiano Market. In Athens he presented his work in 1998 at Nees Morfes Art Gallery.
During the first period of his work, he engaged in painting, drawing and sculpture and presented works from various materials (textile, wood, stone, plaster), often in the form of installations, with male and female heads as his main motif. The works had a symbolic nature through the charged and repeated presence of the human face. As a painter he used gray and earthly colors and insisted on a dialogue between form and the whole.
Later, he turned to wall works with limited chromaticity, using archival material photographs as a starting point. By adding layers of different materials, such as charcoal, graphite, varnishes, etc. to the original depiction, he explores the limits of covering and revealing an image of reality, commenting on the ambiguity of the historical interpretation, while at the same time he explores the limits of representational art itself by purely visual means.
He was a member of the art group ‘Katalipsi’ from 1986-1990. He has taught painting and drawing at the Amaroussion Cultural Center and, since 2003, he teaches at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
He has presented solo exhibitions in many Greek cities and abroad. He has participated in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries (Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, India, Spain, Cyprus, Poland). He also participated in the 4th layers of different materials such as charcoal, graphite, varnishes, etc., the 4th Athens Biennale (AGORA, 2013) and in thematic exhibitions. His works can be found at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, the Municipal Gallery of Karditsa and in the collection of the American College in Athens