You realize that you appreciate an artist when every time you look at his work, you discover details that you have never seen before. It can be a tiny touch, the way a color changes when a ray of sun falls on it, many “readings” of the same composition depending on the joy or sadness that you experience at the moment when you look at it. A good painting is fully interactive, fully alive, never fixed. Michalis Madeni’s new work, which has been on display since last Thursday at the Euripides Gallery in Kolonaki, has one special feature: it transforms when you blink. Suggested for eye opening.

Heart and mind

This in itself is proof that the artist is a master of metaphysics, as the late Marina Lambrakis-Plaka wisely said. His hand is led along the canvas by a secret force that connects him with his heart and mind. Making the outlines of objects, he gives flesh and bone to the whole world. Crossing the threshold of a beautiful building on Heraclitus Street, I felt the sea breeze enveloping me. On the ground floor, Madenis envisions cliffs surrounded by wild flowers and bushes as a path to his favorite untouched beach. The top floor is now dominated by the seas themselves – alone or with stripes of land – impressions with a mastery of color that his teacher Tetsis, with whom they made so many winter Hydra treks, would certainly have been proud of. Madeni’s inspiration, of course, is in the works presented in Euripides, from her walks around Megara and Vouliagmeni.

Great gift

A tirelessly hard-working, gentle character, an oligarch by nature, devoted to duty, Madenis comes at the end of the year to present us with a great “gift” in his individual title “Return to the Landscape”. “I can’t do anything but draw,” he says apologetically, but the result of the work has a deeply therapeutic effect on all of us. A tiny flower, a lead rock, a wave acquire a poetic dimension in his works. Gifted in drawing both places and people, in this section he decides to abandon figures and give the reins to the depiction of space. However, his compositions are not alone, but serve as an invitation to accompany him to listen to the sound of the sea and the smell of wet sand. The exhibition will last until January 21, and the beautiful texts in the catalog are signed by Takis Mavrotas. , Konstantin Dakolia and Nikos Paisios.