Mortarakos Kyriakos (1948)

He was born in Athens in 1948. He studied painting, fresco and stage design at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1970-1976), under Y. Moralis, K. Xinopoulos and V. Vassiliadis. He presented his first solo exhibitions in 1978 (Saint Mark's Basilica, Heraklion, Crete) and in 1979 (Ora gallery, Athens).
His early works were paintings that revealed an expressionist tendency, leaning at the same time towards abstraction. Gradually his artistic explorations, always initiating from the values of painting, led to three-dimensional experiments and to the use of various materials and mixed media. Since the 1990s, his mature work includes, apart from wall works, constructions with embedded objects and spatial installations (with wood, plaster, iron plates, lighting applications, etc.), which sometimes function as an extension of his painting, enhancing its expressive potential. Thereby, he manages to emphasize the conceptual dimension of his subjects, where, allusions to experienced spaces, personal memories, classical myths and symbols, often prevail.
Another feature of his style is the use of handwritten texts or dates, which accompany and sometimes even replace, the painted scenes, enriching the works with complex allusions of narrative, historical or calendar content. These interventions in writing maintain a visual role, but mainly, they indirectly stimulate the mental awareness of the viewer.
From 2005 to 2015, he was a full professor at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and also head of the Painting Studio B.
He has organized twenty solo exhibitions in Athens and other Greek cities, as well as in the USA. He has participated in three Panhellenics, in six Art Athina art fairs, and in many other group exhibitions and international events in Greece and abroad (Denmark, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, U.S.A., et al.).