Tsakali Anna-Maria (1959)

Born in Piraeus in 1959, she studied painting at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Leonardo Cremonini (1983-1987). She lives and works in Athens and Paris.
Her first solo exhibition was held at the Ora Cultural Centre in 1989. Her subjects initially comprised simple and familiar everyday images, interiors and still lifes. Till the late 1990s she paints objects that point to personal memories, clothes, furniture and urban views through half-open windows. Silence and serenity pervade her compositions, . while the human presence is only indirectly suggested by the traces left in space. In 1999, her exhibition Departure (Athens Art Gallery) features two series of works: familiar objects in indoor scenes and, for the first time, landscapes drenched in light. The switch towards the earth, the sea and the sky is part of the quest for a more meaningful relationship with nature. Building upon this phase, after 2000 the main thematic axis in her work is flowers and plants which appear as organic entities and function almost like models for portraits. Their painterly interpretation aims neither at a realistic rendering nor at a sterile depiction of the beauty of flowers. Instead, it highlights their metaphorical meaning and tries to reveal the same oxymoron combination of fragility and dynamism, transience and eternity that characterises human life.
In 2013 the painter was selected by the city of Versailles to take part in the events for the 400 years from the birth of André Le Nôtre, designer of the palace gardens. In this context, the Musée Lambinet at Versailles hosted for her the retrospective Infini Vegetal with works inspired by the kingdom of plants.
She has presented her work in solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad, as well as in numerous group shows in and out of Greece. She has participated in: Peintures. Atelier Cremonini (Galerie de la Maison des Beaux-Arts, Paris 1987), Vers un Nouvel Humanisme. Jeunes peintres grecs a Paris, curated by Marina Lambraki-Plaka (Centre Culturel de Villejuif, Paris 1990), Changing Greece: Art & personalities in the 20th century (Telloglion Art Foundation, Thessaloniki 2002), etc.
Her works can be found in many private and public collections in Greece and abroad.