Philip Tsiaras is an accomplished Greek-American artist known for his dynamic and diverse body of work across painting, sculpture, photography, and glass art.

Born in 1952 in New Hampshire to Greek immigrant parents, Tsiaras grew up in an environment that celebrated both Greek heritage and American identity, a blend that later influenced his artistic themes and aesthetics. His family immigrated to the United States from Greece shortly after World War II.

Tsiaras graduated from Amherst College, where he studied music and comparative literature. He studied alongside Lucas Samaras, the acclaimed American photographer and sculptor, who deeply influenced him and whom he considers a great mentor.

In 1976 he traveled to Greece on a poetry fellowship to translate modern Greek poetry into English. When he returned to the United States in 1978, he began to work with photography, exploring the intersection between verbal and visual representation, a theme that evolved into his well-known “Family Album” series. Since then, Tsiaras has lived and worked in New York City.

His work is often characterized by its bold colors, expressive brushwork, and an exploration of human form and identity. His glass sculptures are also notable for their vibrant colors and organic forms, merge ancient techniques with a modern sensibility.

Tsiaras held his first exhibition, “Limbo”, at MoMA PS1 in New York City in 1984.

Since then, he has had numerous solo and group shows over the past 40 years, including three exhibitions at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Notably in 2001, his bronze sculpture, “Social Climber”, a 3-meter-high work, was displayed for six months in front of the Grand Canal, where approximatively twenty million visitors viewed it.

One of Tsiaras’s paintings from the “Topologies” series has been chosen by the prestigious Tate Modern and the acquisition will be completed by June 2025.

Tsiaras’s works are held in prominent museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), the Guggenheim Museum (NY), the Seattle Art Museum (WA), the Newport Museum of Art (RI), the San Diego Museum of Art (CA), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia), the Vorres Museum (Greece), and the Mannheimer Kunstverein (Germany).

His work is also included in significant private collections, such as the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, founded by Greek collector Dakis Joannou; the collection of Mexican collector David Martinez; and the private art collection of the Niarchos family, among others.

He has received several awards and honors, including the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Tsiaras’s contributions to contemporary art extend beyond his works; he has significantly influenced emerging artists and continues to push the boundaries of medium and technique.

Selected Solo Shows:

·   2024

“Philip Tsiaras: A Private Selling Exhibition”, Sotheby’s, London, UK

All the featured works were from the “Topologies” series, which began in the 1990s.

“Tsiaras, Poseidon & The Hyperbolic Horse”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Glyfada, Greece

“Philip Tsiaras: Topologies 1990-2023”, Gallery 8 - presented by Varvara Roza Galleries and The Blender Gallery, London, UK

·   2023

“Philip Tsiaras: Acqua Antica”, 47 Circles (art collective), Athens, Greece

“The Superdot”, Donopoulos International Fine Arts (DIFA), Thessaloniki, Greece

·   2022

“The Return of the Superdot: A Retrospective by Philip Tsiaras”, Gallery 8 - presented by Varvara Roza Galleries and The Blender Gallery, London, UK

“Divas”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Athens, Greece

·   2021

“Alexander the Great: Dot Portraits”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Athens, Greece

“Philip Tsiaras: Superdot”, Gallery 8 - presented by Varvara Roza Galleries and The Blender Gallery, London, UK

·   2019

“Philip Tsiaras Artworks”, Desani Studio (Inaugural Gallery Opening), Vouliagmeni, Greece

“Dot Pop”, HG Contemporary, New York, USA

·   2018

“Philip Tsiaras: Crystal Guns”, Gallery Skoufa, Mykonos, Greece

·   2017

“Explore the Artworks of Philip Tsiaras”, Amanzoe Resort, Greece

Selected Group Shows:

·   2022

“Art on Paper 2022”, Art Fair - Donopoulos International Fine Arts (DIFA), New York, USA

·   2020

“Abstract Comparisons: Philip Tsiaras and Dimitri Dallas”, The Blender Gallery, Athens, Greece

·   2019

“Summer Highlights”, HG Contemporary, New York, USA

·   2018

“Mark Me: Group Drawing Show”, Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, USA

·   2017

“Philips Tsiaras meets Picasso, Rauschenberg and Warhol”, HG Contemporary, New York, USA

“On Paper”, Paris Koh Fine Arts, New York, USA

“Freeze for Frieze by Moncler”, Featured Participation, London, UK

Our offered painting is from the “Topologies” series — a complex body of Tsiaras’s historic works that encompass over 30 years of artistic development. The paintings are a synthesis of the bold figuration and visceral abstraction in a single painting.

During the Gulf War in the early '90s, Tsiaras, who believed the artist is also a chronicler of his time, began painting airplanes from the thousands of flying sorties seen daily.

"I wanted to balance the media chaos on canvas and challenge my own perception of war," he said. What evolved was a painterly language filled with layered information, and mixed with a personal fascination with theoretical mathematics, specifically topology. Loosely put, topology explores continuous deformations of stretching and bending of lines. When connected to art, it intertwines abstract concepts of space, connectivity, and form. They are what Tsiaras calls "my smart paintings."

The Tsiaras “Topologies” begin with a geometric substructure, an underpainting of diamonds, squares, intersecting lines, and orbs. Tsiaras appears to purposely obscure the mythological, exalted subjects—whether an airplane, a head, a vase, or a horse—with rich layers of abstract painting while secretly revealing unexpected objects that emerge to ground the viewer in reality—a hammer, a French curve, a gun, a knife, or a bottle of Coca-Cola. Embedded throughout all the “Topologies” is Tsiaras's gestural handwriting, an intimate illegibility that art critic Donald Kuspit describes as "mysterious calligraphy, not unlike the Kufic writing in Medieval art." Kuspit adds, "In fact, Tsiaras succeeds in giving the objects a specific emotional tone—usually aggressive, but always with a libidinous dimension."

The “Topologies” of Tsiaras are a “Gesamtkunstwerk” spanning more than three decades of continuously evolving, evocative paintings.