Bio
BIO
I was born on 17-7-1971 in Drama, a small town in Northern Greece. After school I apprenticed to a serigraph (silk-screen print) workshop and worked as a printer for 3 years. Later I was involved in artistic interior decoration as well as artistic and visual editing at various Festivals all over Greece. In 2000 I attended Art Classes Design and Painting in the workshop of K. Tsigris in Athens. In 2006 I entered Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Visual and Applied Arts in the workshops of professors I. Fokas and V. Ploiarides. At the same time I took classes in Professor’s X. Sachines Engraving Workshop. In June 2011 I successfully completed my Final Project with grade 9.11 on a 10 scale. In July 2011 I graduated summa cum laude in Painting. Now I live in Drama and work as an Art Teacher in Elementary Schools. My works are found in private collections and public buildings. I have participated in joint exhibitions and held 5 individual ones so far.
Social Media: www.fokos.gr- Instagram: fokos_artist-FB: Fokos-PHONE +0049 6944358655
TRAVELING DREAMS
Just imagine ….to live in a dream still unborn…
A dream created from scratch with brushes, colours, imagination and vision, with ink, words, passion for life and art.
Multidimensional works of art with diverse themes from which patterns pop up and interweave forms, books, imaginary creatures and faint figures-not necessarily human ones.
Having experienced a personal nightmare, when a lot of my paintings were destroyed in a fire, I had to regenerate and be reborn literally from my own ashes. I could find none more suitable ground to stand on but art! Adopting new, versatile techniques I aspire to create not mere paintings but windows, through which the viewer can peep into things untold. My paintings depict fragments of the subconscious and unconscious colour that dreams are made of .As if I have dusted the corners of my mind down and found chests of ideas and treasures to spread upon canvasses.
Soul-like butterflies wander among human creatures made of repeated patterns resembling the cycle of life. A gentle, horned creature dominates- it is the writer of a parallel reality, another ”fragment” of my alter egos.
In a world that is narrowing, affected by crisis and inflexibility, where everyone has their limits, I dare to break the boundaries and open the gates that lead not only to dreams but also to nightmares, haunting but nevertheless adjusted, dressed up and softened. Who needs to add more darkness in an already tough world?
Carrying nothing but my suitcase I take my tools out and start alternating reality with dreams, fiction with realism, in a journey beyond space and time where my sole compass is the idea – any idea. Thus, the lifeless paper is transformed into a speaking work of art and the ink gives life to worlds seen only with eyes closed. The viewer will be left in the end to wonder about both themselves and the artist ”Whose is the signature? Whose is the dream? ”In every piece of mine I am present as the man, the dreamer, the connoisseur, the lunatic, the romantic and the realist. In each work you can find a piece of my soul mirrored, hopefully yours too………
We all try to balance with one foot into reality and the other one into the dream.
Whichever direction you choose to head to……..
Have a nice journey!
“The Melody of Love”
130X100-Acrylic inks and inks on canvas.
The technique of the repeated lines with fountain pens and acrylic inks creates on my canvas several episodes of dreams with surrealistic elements, the archetype of the union between Love and Death through Melody.
”The Last Train-33-”
130×100-Acrylics inks and inks on canvas.
The elaborate technique of repeated patterns and overstuffing the white spaces of the canvas with tiny black shapes, called ‘tsiki-tsiki’, along with the acrylic inks and watercolours create a story full of symbolisms. The phone is the means to communicate. The suitcase is the means we need to store the most significant things for our journey. The train is the vehicle which leads us to our dream destination: the unknown. I belong to the generation of the neo-symbolist-surrealist artists. Life is full of symbols and messages and so is Art.
tel. (+30) 694 435 8655
email: nfokos@gmail.com
instagram: fokos_artist
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fokos-235970673443442/