Venetoulias Loucas (1930 - 1984)

He was born in 1930 in Thessaloniki. His first painting teacher was Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1954-1958) with Yiannis Moralis and Spyros Papaloukas, giving up his medicine studies.
His first solo exhibition took place in Thessaloniki (Art gallery, 1964). Since then, more than 10 solo exhibitions were organized in Thessaloniki and Athens, while he participated in many group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
From the start, the main theme in his painting was the urban space of his hometown, Thessaloniki. In his early works, the presence of human figures is rare. In the next phase of his work, however, created during the dictatorship period, the appearance of human figures contributes to the expression of criticism. The exact same purpose is served by the presence of machines, which dominate certain works of this period. The landscapes of Santorini island, as well as his Still Lifes, form separate sections, painted mainly after the mid 70's.
He remade many of his works, several years after their initial completion. This was also the case for a series of abstract compositions of 1968, through which the artist explored colour relationships. Almost every single work of this series was remade in 1980.
During the last years of his life, he returns to the image of Thessaloniki as a main theme, which he depicts by highlighting the interventions of modern lifestyle on the face of the city.
Alongside painting, he was involved in set design and graphic arts projects. His writings on art have been published in newspapers and magazines. He was also founding member and vice president of the Association of Visual Artists of Northern Greece (SKETBE, 1983), and played a particularly active part in the efforts to found a School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki.
In 1985, a year after his death (Thessaloniki, 1984), a retrospective exhibition on his work was organized at the Vafopouleio Cultural Centre of Thessaloniki. Three more retrospective exhibitions followed, also in Thessaloniki (2000, 2004 and 2010).