Anna Maria Tsakali
Four Seasons
Past
5 May – 4 June 2022
11 Haritos Street, Kolonaki
Kalfayan Galleries (Haritos 11, Kolonaki, Athens) present the solo exhibition of Anna Maria Tsakali titled «Four Seasons». The opening will take place on Thursday, 5 May, 2022, 18.00 – 21.00.
Τhe flowers in the paintings of Anna Maria Tsakali utter a modern anatomy of the human soul. Balancing between the organicity of matter and the complexity of texture, light and darkness, ‘flowering’ and ‘silence’, the plant world starring in Tsakali’s works emerges as a symbol of existential reflection.
The exhibition at the Kalfayan Galleries titled “Four Seasons” emerged organically, as a vital need to record the rhythm of life that is governed by change. The artist captures in her works the energy of flowers, which penetrates her, treating beauty as “search, destination and reconciliation with life”.
For Anna Maria Tsakali, art is an internal oscilloscope: “It records the change of rhythms, the vibrations, the joy, the desire. These changes as depicted provide the ‘design’ of an interior landscape. At the same time, art records the changes of nature, of life. ‘Rhythm’ is one of the first things present in life, the heartbeat, the first rhythm of nature.”
Alexandra Goulaki – Voutyra ( Professor Emeritus, A.U.Th., General Director of Teloglion Foundation) writes in the catalogue of the recent artist’s solo exhibition titled «Secret Gardens» at the Teloglion Foundation in Thessaloniki: “Flowers, colors, fragile figures, expressed through an endless sensitivity that turns them into expressive portraits of the soul, with a lurking anguish of decay, are used to represent and comment on our world, where beauty and life co-exist, and at the same time are allusively rescinded, as a tragic reminder of the end. “
It is indicative of Tsakali’s work that she is not interested in ‘recording’ the image of nature, but to experience the birth of the image as nature sprouts: “For me the artwork itself is nature. I want what cannot be described to be brought to light. I am referring to that which is unknown even to me until it is revealed on the surface of the work. Nature is energy, power, rebirth. The flowers have an intense presence. To me their beauty likens a sudden awakening. A surpise, an unexpected encounter that can move us and make us forget our fears and difficulties, to approach again our real self. Flowers as joy, desire, pleasure deriving from the act of painting, but also of the representation, as an antidote to stress. “
Artists
Anna Maria Tsakali
Anna Maria Tsakali was born in 1959 in Piraeus, Greece. She studied painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, under Leonardo Cremonini (1983-1987).
In 2013 the artist’s retrospective exhibition titled “Infini Végétal” (curated by Françoise Roussel-Leriche) was presented at the Musée Lambinet (Versailles, Paris).
In 2022, the Telloglion Foundation in Thessaloniki presented a solo exhibition of the artist titled ‘Secret Gardens’.
Her work has been presented in numerous exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
Recent exhibitions (selection): “August” (solo), Cultural Center of the Municipality of Lefkada, Theodoros Stamos Hall, Lefkada; “Le chant de Flore”, Minsky Gallery, Paris (solo). “Affinities” , S. Felios Foundation “The Other Arcadia” (curator: Elissavet Plessa), Athens), Heraklion; “Light in the Black (curator: George Mylonas), Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation, Athens; ” Transfigurations”,Galerie Lefor-Openo, Paris (solo). Works of Anna Maria Tsakali are in the collection of: the National Gallery in Athens, the Teloglion Foundation, the Goulandris Museum, the National Bank of Greece, ETEVA, the Florina Gallery, the Frysiras Museum, the Kouvoutsakis Art Institute, the collection of the Ministry of Finance of France, the Colas Foundation, the Municipality of Versailles, the Sotiris Felios Collection and in private collections in Greece and abroad.
The artist has been honored with the Fondation Colas Award and the ACAM Award in Paris.
Anna Maria Tsakali lives and works in Athens and Paris.
Images
