Papasaikas Vassilis (1956)

Born in 1956 at the village of Kenourgio, Etoloakarnania, he studied drawing in the preparatory course of Vrasidas Vlachopoulos and then sculpture under G. Nikolaidis and Th. Papagiannis at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1979-1984).
The human form is central to his subjects. His early works in marble, bronze and other materials are inspired by figures and subjects of Greek antiquity and mythology: his horse-mounted amazons, and statues of horses are vibrant, with inner tension and harmonised balances. He then goes on to produce heads and torsos with shadow-theatre subjects using painted terracotta. Since the 2000s he has been making life-size sculpture with bronze and painted plaster inspired by his family life and his everyday life.
A major part of his work is the busts and statues of public figures for both public spaces and private collections — among them, the statues of Pavlos Bakoyannis in Karpenissi and Harilaos Trikoupis in Messolonghi, the busts of Georgios Karaiskakis at Ellinopyrgos, Agrafa and Yannis Ritsos in Karlovassi, Samos, the burial monuments of Yannis Ritsos in Monemvasia and Manos Hadjidakis in Peania, etc.
He presented his first solo exhibition in 1989 at the Anemos Gallery and went on to present over ten more solo shows in galleries. He has also participated in dozens of group exhibitions in Greece, including: Seven young Greek sculptors (outdoor; Andros Museum, 1987); Twentieth-Century Sculpture and Painting (Art City Mihalarias, 2004); The case of Capodistria (Historical & Folklore Museum of Aegina, 2015); Messolonghi and Lord Byron – 5th Art Journey (C & S Moschandreou Gallery of Contemporary Art, Etoloakarnania, 2017), etc.