“Landscape (whether urban or rural, artificial or natural) always greets us as space, as environment, as that in which ‘we’ (figured as ‘figures’ in the landscape) find - or lose - ourselves.”
-W.J.T. Mitchell
Stelios Karamanolis (b. 1977, Athens) is a Berlin-based painter whose work explores the intersections of history, mythology and contemporary experience. Through a distinctive visual language, he investigates themes of spirituality, memory and transformation, drawing on symbolic references that connect distant antiquity with the present day.
At the centre of his practice is an interest in the ambiguous relationship between the human and non-human, the visible and the unseen. His paintings evoke fragmentary narratives that unfold through gestures, objects and figures, inviting viewers into worlds shaped as much by intuition and emotion as by historical consciousness.
Landscape plays a central role in Karamanolis’ work, functioning not merely as a setting but as a psychological and symbolic space. Blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination, his compositions create atmospheric environments where narrative, theatre and memory converge. Through these evocative scenes, Stelios constructs poetic spaces that reflect on identity, belonging and the enduring resonance of cultural archetypes.