Gounari Dimitra
STUDIES
1990 – 1996 Studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts in the workshop of Tetsis and Mytaras, and received her diploma
from the workshop of Mytaras
1993 – 1994 Studied engraving under Papadakis and Gourzis
1999 – 2000 Studied engraving at the Abbaye de la Cambre, Brussels
2011 Engraving diploma, with excellently, from the A’ workshop of the Athens School of Fine Arts with Gourzis
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1999 Bosch Gallery
2001 Larissa Contemporary Art Centre
2017 Vorres Museum
2019 Paros Dimitrakopoulos, coop. Gallery Anti
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1993 Heineken Art, Titanium Gallery
1993 Photography exhibition by members of Mytaras’s workshop, Kreonidis Art Gallery
1996 Epoches Art Gallery
1997 Athens School of Fine Arts Graduates’ Exhibition, National Gallery, Athens
1999 Bosch Gallery
2004 Third Student Biennale
2008 Second International EX LIBRIS Triennale, Lefkada. Commendation
2012 John Jay College N.Y., “Art Prints and Human Rights”
2014 9th Koshi International Triennial Exhibition of prints, Japan, Certificate of Merit
WOOD UPON WOOD
The tree depicted in my works is the olive-tree. An approach to the olive requires particular respect. It is a tree that lives for centuries and is completely interwoven with the Greek landscape. The harsh Greek light brings its shape into relief, lending a symbolic dimension to the whorls of its trunk and branches.
Up to now in my work I have been anthropocentric. I believe I came to the olive-tree through a lack of available models. In the olive I found a willing model. It is in many ways similar to the human body. It has character and personality. Its trunk is formed as a function of time, the weather conditions and the slope of the land. Nevertheless no trunk is the same as the one next to it.
I begin by selecting the trunk that impresses me the most. A detailed on-site sketch may take hours or even days. This enables me to get to know the tree better, to study its slant, the light that flows over its mass, the shadows formed in its recesses. The truth is that no matter how many visits you make to the place where it lives and exists, you will never know it well enough. The olive has hidden secrets of the centuries, and this is what makes it so magical.
Afterwards the work moves into the studio. A good result in the engraving depends upon the choice and preparation of the suitable wood. Now the chisel takes the place of the pencil. With sharp tools I try to carve the sketch of the tree on the surface of the wood. But now I have no eraser. Errors cannot be corrected. The work is time-consuming and laborious. Stress and anxiety are part of the game and often the work evolves in my absence. Free woodcarving has its risks.
Satisfaction comes when I see the tree “breaking free” of the surface and projecting its mass outward from the flatness of the wood. You can let your fingers caress the grooves as they would the furrowed bark of the tree itself. Besides, this is also my purpose: that the representation be not merely a drawing but to approach as closely as possible the texture of the tree itself. Wood upon wood.