Biography
Artist Bio
Her artistic work has been included in major public and private collections, including those of the European Commission, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Florina, the Ministry of Macedonia–Thrace, as well as various cultural institutions and collections in Greece.
At the same time, her practice has attracted critical attention from art historians and theorists such as Maria Kenanidou, Despina Efthymiou, Eleni Kartsaka, and Christina Matiaki. Her work has been featured in art journals, catalogues, and publications, with references appearing, among others, in Reflections of Art in Commission Buildings (2005–2010), as well as in Zois Godosi’s book Visual Arts in Florina during the Post-Dictatorship Era (2018).
In 2020, she founded the art collective “Mc Art Space”, aiming to support and promote emerging Greek artists.
Alongside her artistic practice, Maria Chatzilampou works in education as a Visual Arts Teacher and Education Consultant (PE08) at the Secondary Education Directorate of Western Thessaloniki. She has also taught in art workshops and cultural institutions, transferring her artistic experience into creative educational environments.
Her contribution extends into academic and scientific discourse through conferences, publications, and research projects, focusing on the interrelation between art, education, and culture.
Her written and research work includes publications that explore the connection between visual creativity, educational practice, and cultural development:
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“Colored Tables on Canvas” (2023)
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“The Use of Visual Arts in Secondary Education” (2022)
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“Local Development and Cultural Heritage” (2022)
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“Grigoris Chatzilampou” (2020)
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“The Walk of a Line” (2009)
Maria Chatzilampou is a contemporary visual artist whose work is firmly inscribed within the artistic landscape of Florina, Greece. A graduate of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Central Lancashire (Preston, United Kingdom), she completed her studies in 1998 in the studio of the distinguished British artist Lubaina Himid, an experience that significantly shaped her artistic vision and conceptual approach.
Her academic path expanded through postgraduate studies in Cultural Policy and Development at the Open University of Cyprus, where she developed a more nuanced understanding of the role of art within contemporary society. She later deepened her engagement with pedagogy and educational practice by completing a second postgraduate degree in Pedagogy and Teaching Competence at Philips University, bridging theoretical inquiry with educational application.
Statement
In my work, I return to archetypal symbols - the tree, the moon, and the human figure. The tree as an axis of life, the moon as an inner light, and the human as a silent presence. The figures are rendered in an abstract form, without features, using tones of grey, black and ochre, combined with gold, silver, charcoal, and industrial materials.
For me, abstraction is revelation. I remove the unnecessary in order to approach essence - a space where light emerges through darkness.
I paint in order to understand and to create a space of encounter.
In this space, I invite you to stand beyond what is visible - to feel, to remember.
And then to ask yourself:
is what you see the work - or is it you?
Selected Exhibitions
Personal
Team
2022 "MC Art Space" Art Gallery - Florina, Greece
2021"MC Art Space" Art Gallery - Edessa, Greece
2019 "J / M" Art Gallery - London, UK
2019 "La Galleria" - London, UK
2011 "Armos" Art Gallery - Serres, Greece
2011 "Vlassis" Art Gallery -Thessaloniki, Greece
2010 "Camp Kodra" -Thessaloniki, Greece
2010 "G-EA" - Brussels, Belgium
2010 "Theorema" Art Gallery - Brussels, Belgium
2009 "Art Café" - Kozani, Greece
2008 "Art Beat" Gallery - Brussels, Belgium
2008 "Art Base" Gallery - Brussels, Belgium
2008 European Commission - Brussels, Belgium
2007 "Merlin" Art Gallery/ Café - Serres, Greece
2006 "Armos" Art Gallery - Serres, Greece
2005 Sismanoglio Consular Foundation- Istanbul, Turkey
2004 "En -Florini" Art Gallery - Florina, Greece
1999 "Tsageri 1929" Art Gallery/ Café - Florina, Greece
1999 "Lava" Art Gallery - Thessaloniki, Greece
2023 "Time of Art Gallery" Athens, Greece
2023 "Myro Gallery" - Greece, Thessaloniki
Analyses and reviews
"Trying to understand its meaning, position and role as an archetypal symbol, Maria Chatzilampou draws inspired by the Orthodox tradition which she transforms creatively, guided by aseuse of abstraction. Maria's "Trees" are forms whose roots reach deep into time but their foliage rustles in today's wind. They draw on the luxury and grandeur of the Byzantine iconographic idiom but refuse to submit to shapes and dictations."
Eleni Kartsaka,
Visual Artist, Art Historian, Coordinator of the Educational Project of Art Courses
"Maria Chatzilampou's whole work is a negotiation among secret and timeless concepts, themes, relationships and truths. The artist, excluding the insignificant, reinvents an abstract visual code of communication and attempts to construct a clear narrative beyond space and time. The key and reference point of this fictitious code is boldly defined as a symbol."
Christina Matiaki,
Art Historian
"The Tree in the works of Maria Chatzilampou is depicted as a vertical axis rooted in the ground, stable, with an upward course."
Eumorfia Kipouropoulou,
Special Sciences, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Primary Education
"Maria Chatzilampou is a contemporary Greek painter. It combines linear structure with the religious gold sheen of Byzantine art."
Despina Eythymiou,
Art Historian
"She uses the moon as an eternal symbol that connects the mind and soul."
Georgia Kipouropoulou,
Historian, Doctor of pedagogy, Postdoctoral of kindergarten teachers
Varvara Roza
Art Pr & Management
“Maria is an extraordinary artist whom I admire enormously not only for her lieutenant talent but also for her very special and multitalented personality. Maria is an artist that has a very particular technique and also makes strong statements in all her projects! What is really admirable is that she identifies herself with her collection.
Her work is mostly based on a series of different subjects each time. These subjects are mostly influenced by the Greek civilization, culture and tradition!
She is an actual and real representative of Greek art
in London. She, as an artist, conveys all the Greek stimuli in a unique and explicit way!”