Kontellis Andreas (1966)

Born in Athens in 1966, he started with painting lessons by Anna Anoussi Ilia (1979-1982) and the by Vrasidas Vlachopoulos (1982-1984) before studying at the ASFA under P. Tetsis (1984-1990), obtaining state scholarships as a student. In 1993, he took an exam for an IKY grant to develop anthropomorphic expressionism in his work, with P. Tetsis as his supervisor. He continued with postgraduate studies in painting, on a four-year scholarship of the Academy of Athens, at Middlesex University under John Thompson and Jim Mooney, graduating in 2000.
His works move in the area of representational painting with pronounced expressionistic elements. His subjects vary: portraits, landscapes, seas, nudes, drawings that depict the human body and convey the harmony of movement, exuding innocence and eroticism in equal measure. The idealised rendering of women is evident in his nudes, while his landscapes and portraits reflect personal memories, childhood experiences, the need for inner freedom and his love for his place of origin. The father figure is the one that recurs most often in his early portraits. His landscapes are inspired mostly by the nature of his native land, which he recalls in the studio to convey not just the locality but also his emotionally charged memories. In more recent works he depicts his experiences from the Exarchia neighbourhood around his studio as the visual echo of politically fraught events.
He has had over 20 solo exhibitions in many Greek cities as well as in Nicosia, Barcelona and New York, and has participated in many group shows in Greece and abroad: Tribute to EL Greco. (National Gallery of Greece, 1995), Olympic Spirit and Contemporary Greek Art, (Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania 2003), Tracing Istanbul, (Sismanoglion Hall, Constantinople 2010 & Technopolis, Athens), Invisible Troupe: Visual Approaches to the Poetic World of C. P. Cavafy (Gezira Art Centre, Cairo 2013), etc.