Manolis Anastasakos is a multidisciplinary Greek artist born in Athens in 1977. His artistic practice encompasses various disciplines, including painting, sculpture, illustration, engraving, directing, scenography, and art curation.

He pursued formal studies in applied and fine arts, art therapy, and directing, supported by state scholarships and participation in European educational programs. Further enriching his technical foundation, Anastasakos trained in glassmaking and woodcarving through workshops both in Greece and abroad. His artistic education also includes studies in photography, scenography, and iconography.

Anastasakos maintains a deep engagement with public and urban art, particularly through large-scale murals and installations. In 2011, he was awarded a distinction in the competition "Art in the Public Urban Space with Painting on Building Walls in Athens," organized by the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Ministry of Environment, Energy & Climate Change. He actively created several major mural works which have been displayed in public spaces as part of this initiative.

He also serves as the Art Director at the Biomimicry Greece Research and Innovation Center from 2015-2019 and began collaborating with NASA's Space Apps Challenge Greece in 2016. He is a member of the visual arts organization "A. Tassos."

Throughout his career, Anastasakos has worked across various creative industries, including film, television, publishing, and theater, where he has served as both director and stage designer. A career milestone was his involvement in the sculpture, painting, and scenography departments for the closing ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Anastasakos works across various surfaces and scales—from detailed miniatures on paper to large-scale murals—seamlessly blending modern materials with traditional techniques. At the heart of his practice lies a deep exploration of the human condition, rooted in the timeless, unanswered questions of existence. His work draws inspiration from the primordial myths that shaped our understanding of the world while also engaging with themes of spirituality, philosophy, science, and human relationships. These elements are brought into dialogue with one another to form a layered, complex narrative and a distinct visual vocabulary. A recurring concern in Anastasakos’s work is the human tendency to conflate security with happiness and the potential for art to reshape the viewer’s spiritual outlook through their aesthetic sensibility and critical reflection. The artist admits he has yet to find a definitive answer to this question—but it is precisely the ongoing pursuit that fuels his creative process.

Anastasakos’s monumental public artworks have been exhibited throughout Europe as part of various cultural initiatives and EU-funded programs. His work has received broad international recognition, appearing in newspaper covers, documentaries, interviews, and film productions. He has also earned critical acclaim and numerous awards while representing Greece in solo and group exhibitions across Europe, the United States, and China.

His work is held in the permanent collections of several prominent museums and institutions, including:

LACMA Museum, (Los Angeles, USA)

Los Angeles Center for Digital Art (Los Angeles, USA)

Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, USA)

MOYA – Museum of Young Art (Vienna, Austria)

The Acropolis Museum (Athens, Greece)

Benaki Museum (Athens, Greece)

National Archaeological Museum (Athens, Greece)

NEON & Marina Abramović Institute (Athens, Greece)

Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Palazzo Rizzo (Palermo, Italy)

National Roman Museum – Baths of Diocletian (Rome, Italy)

Luciano Benetton Collection, San Giorgio Maggiore (Venice, Italy)

Selected Solo Shows:

2026 (Upcoming)

A show is scheduled in September at Lawrie Shabibi gallery, Dubai, UAE

A show is planned in spring at Victoria Miro gallery in London, UK

An exhibition is scheduled in March at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece

2024

“Mythos: Mnemosyne”, Gallery Eight (Varvara Roza Galleries & The Blender Gallery), London, UK

2021

“Mythos”, Gallery Eight (Varvara Roza Galleries & The Blender Gallery), London, UK

2020

“Mythos”, The Blender Gallery & Varvara Roza Galleries, Athens, Greece

2018

“Mythos”, Kontaki Design Gallery, Athens, Greece

2017

“Promytheus”, The Image Gallery, Athens, Greece

2016

“Cosmos”, The Blender Gallery, Athens, Greece

2015

“Personhood II”, Hush Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey

2011

“Personhood”, Fizz Gallery, Athens, Greece

Selected Group Shows:

2025

“Art Basel Miami” – Art Fair, Surovek Gallery, Miami, USA – December 5-7 (Upcoming)

2024

“Luminous Reveries”- Red Dot Art Fair, show curated by Galerie Kuhn (Berlin), Miami, USA

“Frieze Art Fair”, Goodman Gallery, London, UK

“My Pieta”, Technohoros Art Gallery @ Art Project Space, Athens, Greece

“Art Santa Fe Fair”, Artavita Gallery / World Wide Art, Santa Fe, USA

2023

“Artbox Projects Miami 2.0” – Art Basel Miami, Eduardo Lira Art Gallery, Miami, USA

“Cultural Impressions”, Representing Greece @ National Museum Constantin Brancusi, Târgu Jiu, Romania

2022

“Art Athina” - Art Fair, Athens, Greece

2021

“The Tides of the Century”, Ocean Flower Island Museum, Hainan, China

“WAAG: We are All Greeks 1821/2021”, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki, Greece

“WAAG: We are All Greeks 1821/2021”, Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art - Palazzo Rizzo, Palermo, Italy

“Ex-Staseis: Attempts at the Representation of Liberty”, Cultural Foundation of Tinos, Tinos, Greece

“COV-ART Project”, Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens, Greece

2020

“The Art of it All”, NASA International Space App Challenge – Covid19 Global Hackathon, Washington, USA

“United Nations - Symbol of Life”, Palais des Nations – Representing Greece, Geneva, Switzerland

“United Nations - Freedom & Happiness”, UN Headquarters in NY – Representing Greece, New York, USA

2019

“Artbox Projects Miami 2.0” – Art Basel Miami, Wynwood Art Gallery, Miami, USA

“AIR4/100 Artists/100 Artworks”, Ravnikar Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia

“Unforgettable Childhood”, Bologna Jewish Museum, Bologna, Italy

“The World Is A Hologram”, 15th Athens Digital Art Festival, Athens, Greece

“Dialogic Iconostasis”, Diocesan Museum of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

The offered painting is part of “Mythos”, a series Anastasakos began in 2014. This body of work marks the culmination of a philosophical and artistic journey that delves into the essence of human existence. It reflects the artist’s ongoing inner dialogue between antiquity and modernity, expressed through an intricate interplay of abstraction, minimalism, and baroque intensity.

Through this artistic pluralism, “Mythos” transcends traditional interpretations of myth. Each work acts as a mirror—inviting viewers to see themselves within the narrative and to uncover personal meaning within the timeless stories of humanity. Drawing from a broad spectrum of civilizations and iconographies, the series weaves a rich visual tapestry that resonates across cultures and eras. At its core, “Mythos” reimagines Greek mythology through a contemporary lens, in keeping with Anastasakos’s broader practice of blending classical references with modern social commentary. Figures such as Centaurs, Medusa, and Kali appear in raw, emotionally charged compositions that are often unsettling in their power.