PAINTING Maria Filopoulou Biographical Note Born in Athens in 1964. Maria Filopoulou studied painting in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts under Professor L. Cremonini during the period 1984-88. She continued with postgraduate studies at the same school with a French Government scholarship during the period 1988-89 (lithography under Abrahad Hadad). Works of hers have been acquired by the National Gallery of Greece, the Greek Parliament, and private museums and collections in Greece and abroad. She has held 14 solo exhibitions in Athens, Salonica, Paris, and London and as taken part in more than 50 group exhibitions in Greece, France, Belgium, Monaco, London, the United States, etc. Her works can be distinguished by characteristic curvature and distortions appearing as if seen by a wide angle lens. The subjects of her paintings include seascapes, greenhouses, interiors and staircases. Her works move with an expressionistic mood in the framework of representational trends. Since 1995 her painting has centered on panoramic landscapes and seascapes. As an extension to the seascapes she includes a series of swimmers painted as if seen from under water. The swimmers are in complete freedom, bodies which have lost their gravity, nude to give a greater sense of freedom. She wants them to seem as though they belong to this environment. The strong light and the reflections of the water on the nude bodies, the bubbles and the sand on the bottom of the sea transform the scene into a dream world.