*1967 Kalamata/Greece – lives in Berlin

Dimitris Tzamouranis is a painter in the classic sense of the word. His representational paintings are testament to his outstanding artisanal abilities. He paints on large-format canvases, which he primes traditionally in multiple layers, or on copper plates in small formats. His world of motifs also follows the traces of art history back through many past centuries. Nevertheless, his art is exceptionally contemporary, blending the present with traditional content, techniques, and themes. Tzamouranis is as interested in current social and political topics as he is in interpersonal encounters and individual dispositions.

Born in 1967 in Kalamata on the Peloponnese peninsula, he moved to Berlin in 1990 at the age of 23, having graduated from the Fine Arts University in Thessaloniki where he majored in painting and graphic arts. For the next three years, he studied at the Berlin University of the Arts. Video soon became the central medium for him. He lived for a year in Istanbul thanks to a scholarship awarded by the Senate of Berlin.

Tzamouranis’ grandfather was a church painter, and the artist was brought up in a very religious family. These two facts from his life, combined with the artist’s education, ultimately pushed him towards figurative painting. Since around 2001, he has painted very personal works using a realistic visual language. He soon ventured beyond pure imagery and introduced mysterious elements and characters into his painted scenes. Reality and dreams subtly intertwine, visualisations of the paintings seem magical, and illumination, light, and shadow add a film-like dramatic effect. A principle he continued to pursue until today in repeatedly new variations and narratives. His numerous studies of characters, portraits, and self-portraits contain an exceptional closeness and intimacy.

Tzamouranis has had exhibitions organised by various institutions, including the Frissiras Museum in Athens (2013) and Kunsthalle Dominikanerkirche Osnabrück (2013). In 2017, the artist took part in the documenta exhibition in Kassel.

Publications

‘One Minute, One Question’

Available Works

Exhibitions with Dimitris Tzamouranis

Grants and awards

1995 Spropoulos Foundation Price, Athens

1999 Scholarship by the senate administration for science, research and culture, Berlin in Istanbul

Solo exhibtions (selection)

2018 Tumult Foundation, Toruń, Poland

2017 Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2015 Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki

2014 Zone Contemporaine, Bern | Galerie Haas AG, Zurich

2013 Frissiras Museum, Athens | Kunsthalle Osnabruck

2012 Galerie Miro, Prague

2011 Vierter Stock, Projektraum Berlin

2010 Galerie Haas & Fuchs, Berlin

2009 de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich

2008 MMCA Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki | Akademie der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin

2007 Fundació “la Caixa”, Lleida, Catalonia

2006 Kunstverein Buchholz, Buchholz

2005 Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki

2004 Batagianni Gallery, Athens

2003 Tammen Galerie, Berlin

1999 Bm-Suma Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul

1997 Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, Athens

1996 Museum Spyropoulos, Athens

1995, 1991 Pleiades Gallery, Athens

1990 Gallery TinT, Thessaloniki