Yannis Markantonakis

During his engineering studies in London, he discovered the National Gallery and especially the Impressionists at the Tate Gallery who made him want to paint. Graduated, Yannis returned to Greece to do his military service and then joined the family business of his uncle, a shipowner in Piraeus. He spent five years there sailing and following cargo repairs in industrial areas around the world without ever leaving his pallet. In 1985, he moved to Paris and followed the teaching of Jean Bertholle and André Bouzerau at the Saint-Roch academy. Since his first exhibition in 1987, his works have been the subject of monographic exhibitions in Germany, Belgium, France, Greece, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal ... Undeniably his painting testifies to a great pictorial mastery. Yannis goes straight to the point with a restricted palette of two or three colors, an equally sober, subtle, obvious composition! Old wooden planks serve as a support for him, while deformed, smashed, patched frames constitute a setting for his timeless and silent work, tirelessly capturing our gaze.