Kessanlis Nikos

He studied painting at the School of Fine Arts (1950-1955) under Yannis Moralis and at the same time worked as an assistant to Jannis Spyropoulos and Nikos Nikolaou. In 1952 he took part in the Panhellenio, exhibiting three works. He continued his studies in Rome at the School for the Preservation of Works of Art and worked as a preservationist on the works for the restoration of the wall paintings in the church of the Eremitani in Padua. He presented his first solo show in 1957 at the Obelisco gallery in Rome, the catalogue of which had a preface by the art critic Guilio Carlo Argan while in 1958 he exhibited his first informel work at the Venice Biennale. In Italy he created the Gruppo Sigma along with Yannis Gaitis, Dimitris Kontos, Vlassis Caniaris and Kostas Tsoclis. In 1959 he was awarded the first Amedeo Modigliani Prize in Livorno and decided to settle permanently in Paris where he had cordial relations with Pierre Restany. In 1961 he won the Premio Lissone European Prize and honorable mention at the Sao Paolo Biennale. The same year he presented Gestures at the J gallery and in 1962, the year of his first solo show in Paris, Walls in a group exhibition of Greek artists in Paris while at the same time continuing to exhibit in Italy. In 1964 he took part, with his first White Gesture, in the Mercato d’Arte in Florence, while he would also present works made of sheets in his first solo show in Rome as well as the La Fenice Theater in Venice, in the context of the Biennale. At the same time he was experimenting with photography and in 1965 presented in Berlin, Paris, and Rome the Phantasmagorias of Identity. During that same period he formed the Mec Art Group made up of artists such as Di Bello, Bertini, Rotella, Mariani, Beguier and Jacquet under the supervision of Restany. In 1966 he created Reformations with the use of an epidiascope and color and this was followed by Meta-Structures. In 1978 he took part in an exhibition of the New Realists at the Zoumboulaki gallery. In 1981 he was elected professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts and settled permanently in Athens at the beginning of the following year. He also served as Rector of the School until 1996. In 1987 he presented a series of his Poplars at the Pieridis Gallery while in 1988 he represented Greece, along with Vlassis Caniaris, at the Venice Biennale and took part in the Olympiad of Art in Seoul. In 1996 he presented Cements and for the first time in Greece the complete Gestures series at the gallery AD.

A restless artist, who never stops experimenting with techniques and methods, he has managed to transcend traditional painting materials and has found himself on the forestage of the avant garde throughout his career, moving from informel to mec art and then on to his photomechanical works done on sensitized cloth or cement.