Biography
Dimitris Pikros (b. 1973, Greece) is an award-winning Greek contemporary painter based in London. His practice is driven by a lifelong investigation into the evolving possibilities of painting, centred on the research question: How can painting continue to evolve? Developed through his Innovative Painting Manifesto (2000), his practice explores how painting can respond to changing visual culture while continually expanding the possibilities of the medium.
Pikros’ painting language has developed through a process of removing conventional outlines and allowing colour to define form. He uses contrasting and flat fields of colour, isolated forms and relationships of proximity to construct perspective and movement across the canvas. Over time, he has pushed this approach further through more fluid relationships between colour and organic forms, creating greater chromatic complexity and movement across the painted surface.
Graduating with First Class Honours from the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Pikros achieved the highest grades of his year. His early work was selected for presentation at Art Athina 2000, where the exhibited collection was acquired in its entirety, marking the beginning of his professional career. Since then, his paintings have been exhibited widely across Europe, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and are held in both public and private collections.
Following a successful early career, Pikros stepped away from the commercial art world to undertake a sustained period of research through Zen, meditation, and Shri Vivek Yoga under the guidance of Shri Guruji Swami Vivekananda. This period informed his understanding of painting as both artistic research and lived experience.
Today, alongside his studio practice, Pikros continues to explore painting through immersive environments, performative works and participatory projects, extending his ongoing investigation into the evolving possibilities of the medium.
Artist Statement
My practice is driven by a lifelong investigation into the evolving possibilities of painting, centred on the research question: How can painting continue to evolve? This enquiry is guided by my Innovative Painting Manifesto, developed in 2000 as an ongoing framework for exploring how painting can respond to changing visual culture and discover new possibilities within the medium.
My approach to painting began with a fascination with the emerging visual language of digital imagery in the 1990s and a desire to explore how something of that visual intensity could exist on canvas. I developed a way of creating forms without conventional outlines, allowing colour to define form through contrast, proximity and the relationships between colours. Using contrasting and flat fields of colour alongside isolated forms, I construct perspective, spatial relationships and dynamic movement across the painted surface.
Over time, I have pushed this approach further, exploring more fluid relationships between colour and organic forms. Colours can flow into and interact with one another while maintaining the clarity and flatness of the painted surface, creating greater chromatic complexity and additional layers of movement. These developments allow the forms, colours and surface to remain in continual visual interaction rather than being fixed within conventional modelling or shading.
For me, painting is an evolving medium rather than a fixed visual language. Each body of work becomes an opportunity to test what else colour, form, surface and movement can do on canvas. As my practice develops, these questions extend beyond painting into immersive, performative and participatory work, while remaining grounded in the same ongoing investigation: how painting can continue to evolve.
