Trees

A Museum of Trees

The tree, as part of the landscape or on its own, has always been one of the dominant themes in Markos Kampanis’ paintings. Fascinated with painting directly from nature, he has created works with various techniques and materials – drawings, acrylics, monotypes, prints.

The Museum of Trees series deals with the tree as it is depicted through art history. Real trees seen in nature give way to the trees of history. The series traverses the entire history of art from antiquity to the present day, from east to west, focusing on how trees have been painted throughout time. In this way, relationships between different historical periods and affinities between different aesthetic and cultural approaches are highlighted. We are guided to find similarities and common elements through the painter’s vision between epochs or perceptions that are seemingly different, even ‘hostile’, to each other.

The works were exhibited in 2011 at the Athens Art Gallery and in 2012 at the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece in Thessaloniki. Selected works were shown in the exhibition “Ploes 21” at the Kydonieos Foundation in Andros in 2015 and in the international exhibition “Myths, Memories, Mysteries” in 2014-15, curated by Roger Wollen.