PAINTING Manolis Charos Biographical Note Born on the island of Kithira in 1960. Manolis Charos studied art in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieur des Beaux-Arts (Diploma in Engraving and Painting with honors). He did his graduate work at the Ecole National Superieur des Arts Decoratifs (Visual Communication) and was awarded the National Prize in France, the “Prix des Fondations”, in lithography. In 2000 he was awarded first prize by the Athens Academy for artists under 40 years of age. He was given a scholarship at Princeton University to do illustrations for a book of Aesop’s Fables. He has illustrated books on Greece’s foremost poets Kavafis and Vassilikos as well as other special lithograph series. One of his paintings was chosen for the Absolut Art Museum and he was the first Greek artist to be included in the International Absolut Collection. His works are found in art collections in Greece and abroad (private collections and museums) and he has had a number of exhibitions in Greece and abroad (France, Spain, U.S., and Monte Carlo). He is best known for his boldly colored landscapes and for his unique facility in engraving. He uses representational art to “recite” short stories with pictures derived from memories of his youth, and touches of naiveté and impulsive freshness often result in imaginary landscapes. The artist calls his works “strolls” and “walks” in artistic fields. Boats, poppies and other flowers, sea, hill tops, olive trees, cypress trees and butterflies make up the personal dreamlike microcosm of the artist. He often escapes to his island birthplace of Kithira for his inspiration, and the results are in work that nostalgically projects his autobiographical, symbolic merging of mind and memory.