Thomas Tournavitis | Neopontus

Pontos means sea. Great sea. The so-called Black Sea. Or as euphemism, the Welcoming… Pontus is also called the northeast region of Asia Minor stretching from Sinope and Apamea or Amasya to Kerasunda, Trebizond, and Batum. And from the mountains of Pontus to Caucasus. Pontos, the mythical region that the sea is crumbling continuous, the primordial sea - the cradle of Greeks. Pontus. Difficult places, difficult people. But also a culture that continues. That never ceased to unfold its peculiarity. This is also the deepest meaning of the present aesthetic proposition by painter Thomas Tournavitis. Is there, indeed, Pontic culture today? And far from folklore graphics and cliché facilities? Tournavitis responds directly, persistently insisting: Yes! Proof, the exhibited works which continue his characteristic form but also build a modern “pontian” universe, with colors sometimes aggressive and sometimes tender and transparent, with scriptures strongly motional - dancing - and with figures full of optimistic energy and humor they came from far away to participate in a war dance here in front of you. Images of both experience and memory. Conscious but also subconscious. Misled from memory like the hagiographies of Saint Eugene of Trebizond. And because the more we narrate, the more we portray the world, the more it becomes accessible and more human. Thomas Tournavitis proposes a “pontian expressionism” and argues very convincingly about it, combining the sense of drama with the aesthetics of hope. Manos Stefanidis...more

Thomas Tournabitis was born in 1981 in Athens. He attended the workshop of sculptor Nikos Stefos (1997-1999). He graduated in 2005 from the Derby School of Fine Arts (UK) with BA (DP). He continued his postgraduate studies at the Philharmonie School in Berlin (Germany 2006). He worked as a professor of semiotics at the Department of Photography of the IEK of Volos and as a teacher of art in private and public private and public elementary schools of the city of Volos (2008-2010). He has made about 30 solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 100 groups exhibitions in Greece and abroad. His works belong to private collections in New York, Miami, Paris, Munich, Montpellier, Athens, Zagreb, Bratislava, Nicosia, Sarajevo and elsewhere. He lives and works at his atelier in Piraeus. [Biography updated on: 8/3/2019]