Panos Famelis – Fragments and Dust
Panos Famelis presents his latest body of work, Fragments and Dust, at Nitra Gallery, curated by Aliki Tsirliagkou.
The works, created between 2021 and 2025, include two-dimensional wall pieces as well as three-dimensional compositions. From the very beginning of his career, Famelis has been exploring the potential of matter as a fundamental component in shaping pictorial space. He gravitates towards heavy materials, oil paints, pencil, and graphite, yet handles lighter mediums such as watercolors with equal mastery. His drawing is always the result of the processing of material tied directly to the support of each work: wood, paper, or metal structures.
Since his first solo exhibition in 2005, Famelis has produced large-scale works, sculptural experiments, videos, performances, and monumental drawings. Across all these explorations, the common thread is the energy required to bring them into being, a force evident both in the artist’s gestures and in the production process itself.
This exhibition reflects three distinct strands of his research.
The wall pieces are the result of years of natural dehydration of pigments, linseed oil, and beeswax. Theoretically, oil paint never truly dries, a paradox that painters have long sought to confront. Famelis prepares his material in large quantities, observing its oxidation as it comes into contact with air. From the hardened crust of oil colour emerge luminous, multifaceted fragments that assemble into pictorial space. Here, time expands and condenses, transforming into both idea and artistic practice. His visual language is extroverted, accessible, and inseparable from the painstaking, time-intensive process of creation.
The sculptural works extend this process into three dimensions, revealing the depth and intensity of the dried material. They resemble visceral relics of painting, now given physical form.
The third section features a work in progress: masses of dehydrated paint arranged irregularly, like stones leaning against one another. At the very core of his practice, it continues his exploration of decay and the value of imperfection.
Panos Famelis methodically investigates the transformation of matter into moment.
Time, ultimately, will grant him his due.
Ilias Papailiakis, Painter – Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of Art
Artist Bio
Panos Famelis
Panos Famelis (b. 1979, Athens) studied at the School of Fine Arts in Thessaloniki, at Hogeschool Gent University in Belgium (Erasmus), and completed postgraduate studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He has received numerous distinctions, including an award from the Bank of Greece (2008), scholarships from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) in 2002 and 2005 (first graduate scholarship and annual scholarship), recognition from the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in 2005, and an Erasmus scholarship in 2003. Famelis works across diverse media including painting, sculpture, installations, performance, and theater. He is a founding member of the collective Under Construction and has curated several exhibitions. To date, he has presented eight solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad and participated in numerous group shows. In 2009, he took part in the 3rd Athens Biennale “EXIT,” and in 2011 he was selected to participate in the 15th Mediterranean Biennale (Thessaloniki–Rome). His works are part of museum and private collections in Greece and internationally.