Dimitris Tzamouranis

Dimitris Tzamouranis ( Greek Δημήτρης Τζαμουράνης ; born July 11, 1967 in Kalamata , Greece ) is a Berlin-based Greek painter .

Live and act

After studying painting and graphics at the University of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki, Dimitris Tzamouranis completed his advanced training as a master class student at the University of the Arts in Berlin . In 1999 he lived and worked for a year in Istanbul thanks to a grant from the Berlin Senate .

Since around 2001 he has been painting very personal works in realistic imagery. He goes beyond the purely mere likeness out and scatters puzzling elements and characters in the scenes one. Reality and dream mix subtly, the representations appear magical, lighting, light and shadow create a cinematic drama. A principle that he continues to pursue in ever new variations and narratives to this day.

A special closeness and intimacy can be found in his numerous figure studies, portraits and self-portraits . In the slightly surreal or paradoxical framework, deeply human fears and central themes of our life are depicted: love, longing, hope, pain, search for meaning. Tzamouranis always works with models, they often come from his direct environment. In addition to his own imagination and the scenes found by the theatrical direction, suggestions are also motifs from art history . He catapults historical, mythological and biblical subjects into the present, often only in parts, so that an irritating and fascinating mixture of modernity and centuries-old pictorial inventions develops.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 2018 Garden of Youth, Tumult Foundation, Contemporary Art Center; Toruń, Poland
• 2017 Mare Nostrum, Galerie Michael Haas, and Kunstlager Haas; Berlin
• 2015 A day for Life, a day for Death, Zina Athanassiadou Gallery; Thessaloniki
• 2014 Melancholia - Altar, Zone Contemporaine; Bern
• 2014 Tarot, Haas Gallery; Zurich
• 2013 Dimitris Tzamouranis, retrospective, Frissiras Museum; Athens
• 2013 Melancholia, Kunsthalle Osnabrück; Osnabrück
• 2012 Melancholia, Galerie Miro; Prague
• 2010 Dimitris Tzamouranis - New Paintings, Galerie Michael Haas; Berlin
• 2010 Haas & Fuchs Gallery; Berlin
• 2010 Time of the Signs - Jimmie Durham, Kendell Geers, Dimitris Tzamouranis, de Pury & Luxembourg; Zurich
• 2008 Scarscapes, MOMus Museum of Modern Art; Thessaloniki
• 2008 Dimitris Tzamouranis, Academy of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation; Berlin
• 2007 Supraficciones, Fundació "la Caixa", Lleida; Catalonia
• 2006 Das Haus, Kunstverein Buchholz; Buchholz
• 2006 Hall of Mirrors, living machine; Berlin
• 2004 Dimitris Tzamouranis, Batagianni Gallery; Athens
• 1999 Rent a Dream, Bm-Suma Contemporary Art Center; Istanbul
• 1997 Dimitris Tzamouranis, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center; Athens

Group exhibitions (selection)

• 2019 AthenSYN I: Homemade Exotica, Freiraum in der Box, Berlin
• 2019 Woods Art Institute, Wentorf near Hamburg
• 2018 New Horizons of European painting III, Museum Frissiras, Athens
• 2018 Painting still alive, Contemporary Art Center, Toruń, Poland
• 2017 Antidoron, Documenta 14, Kassel
• 2017 New Acquisitions, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
• 2015 Joy of Beautiful Gods Sparks - In the Beginning Was The Cross, ABTART, Stuttgart
• 2014 Existential Imagery, Reinking Collection, Weserburg, Museum of Modern Art, Bremen
• 2013 Landscape after 2000, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Osnabrück
• 2011 Polyglossia, Onassis Cultural Center, Athens
• 2010 Love of life and dance of death, Olbricht Collection, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems
• 2010 Waking the Dead, Kunsthalle Autocenter, Berlin
• 2009 paint id. Contemporary painting in Greece, MOMus Museum of Modern Art, Thessaloni
• 2009 In Istanbul, Between Arrival and Departure, Bm-Suma Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul
• 2008 Call it what you like, Kunst Centret Silkeborg Bad, Silkeborg
• 2007 Malkunst 2 - Contemporary Painting in Berlin Mudima, Fondazione per l'Arte Contemporanea, Milan
• 2007 Activni constelace, House of Art in the City of Brno, Czech Republic
• 2006 Masquerades - Femininity, Masculinity and other Certainties, Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
• 2006 Minimal Illusions, Villa Merkel & Bahnwärterhaus, Esslingen
• 2005 Passion of collecting, Federkiel Foundation, Halle 14, Leipzig
• 2004 Biennale europea Arte Visive, La Spezia
• 2004 In the Gorges of the Balkans, Personal Cinema Group, Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel
• 2002 4th Cetinje Biennial, Cetinje Biennale of Visual Arts, Cetinje, Montenegro
• 2002 Familistère 1, Kunst-Werke eV, Berlin
• 2002 La creación de la Guerra de los Balcanes: el juego, MediaLab Prado, Madrid
• 1998 Transmutar - Berlin - Barcelona, ​​Associacion de Cultura Contemporania L'Angelot (ACC), Barcelona
• 1998 Orient / e, The Jewish Museum and Archives of Hungary, Budapest
• 1997 And Still the Ship is not in Sight, GAK - Society for Current Art eV, Bremen
• 1995 Configura 2, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Erfurt
• 1995 Atmosfery, Galeria Miejska Arsenal, Poznan, Poland
• 1995 Artystów Museum, Lodz, Poland
• 1995 Grenzlos, Obere Galerie im Haus am Lützowplatz and Galerie Eva Poll, Berlin
• 1994 VII Biennial of the Mediterranean countries, Lisbon

Single publications

• Tumult Foundation (ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis, Garden of Youth, Toruń 2018. Text: Michael Stoeber.
• Galerie Michael Haas (ed.): Mare Nostrum, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Berlin 2017. Text: Michael Stoeber
• Galerie Haas Zurich (ed.): Tarot, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Berlin 2014. Text: Erika Költzsch
• Frissiras Museum (ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis - Painting. Athens 2013. Text: Thanassis Moutsopoulos
• Kunsthalle Osnabrück (ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis Melancholia. Ostfildern 2013, Hatje Cantz Verlag. Text: Sotirios Bachtsetzis, Andre Lindhorst, David Woodard
• Galerie Michael Haas Berlin (Ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis - New Paintings, Berlin 2010 Text: Christos Joachimides
• Konrad Adenauer Foundation (ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis, painting, Berlin 2008
• Kunstverein Buchholz (ed.): Dimitris Tzamouranis, Altenburg 2006, Verlag für Moderne Kunst Nürnberg. Text: Sven Nommensen, Sotirios Bachtsetzis

Web links

• Interview with the artist