Description
Xenofon Sachinis was Born in Thessaloniki in 1954, he studied printmaking under K. Grammatopoulos and stage design under V. Vassiliadis at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He graduated in 1978 and went on to study painting at the Εcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris (1981-1985) under V. Guignebert. Starting from his initial experience as painter and printmaker, his art evolves on the basis of research on how an image is produced. His early works feature both representational and abstract elements, gestures, experimentations with techniques and colours, while his painting and printmaking evolve in parallel. Gradually, however, the two arts fuse together and are led into three-dimensional constructions of wood and sheet metal. After the mid-1990s his research on the role of engraving upon the rendering of the image lead him to the use of Plexiglas; he combines his transparent structures with mirrors to multiply the reflections and artificial light to ‘capture’ the image, while introducing also digital media. The prevailing poetic atmosphere in his works is often combined with a sharp social critique. The references to art history and the extensive use of self-portraits characterise his more recent work. In 1986 he began to teach at the University of Thessaloniki’s Dept of Visual & Applied Arts, and in 2009 he was elected as professor of printmaking and director of the printmaking workshop; he has served as Head of the Department and Dean. He has taught printmaking seminars, attended international conferences and sat in selection committees, and has published articles in newspapers and periodicals. In 1997 he joined Manolis Yannadakis in establishing the Helios Printmaking Research Centre & Workshop of the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykees.