Thomas Xenakis

About the Artist

Thomas Xenakis Visual Artist Web pages: www.xenakisarts.com and www.xenakisiconarts.com     Mr. Xenakis received a B.S. in Biology, with a minor in Fine Arts, at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He studied drawing and painting under Phillip Pearlstein, Paul Gianfagna, Robert Henry, and Milet Andrejevic. He went on to receive a Master in Arts degree in Medical and Biological Illustration, at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He was a professional full-time medical and biological illustrator for about 15 years. He worked at the Eastern Virginia Medical School, and as a freelance illustrator for the medical, publishing, and legal fields.   Thomas was awarded 2 Senior Fulbright Fellowship to Greece in 1994‑1995 and 2000-2001. In 1996, he became artist‑in‑residence at the Wesley Theological Seminary, Center for the Arts and Religion, Washington, DC. He continued his creative work with the sacred icon and its contemporary applications in media and subject. Thomas completed a Master of Fine Arts, at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger School of Painting in Baltimore, Maryland under the guidance of the late, Grace Hartigan, Abstract Expressionist. He was Mrs. Hartigan’s trusted graduate assistant in 1997-1998.   Mr. Xenakis maintains a studio in Silver Spring, Maryland. Since 2003 he is working on a series of sculpted and painted mixed media gilded panels with a variety of precious metals. These works are titled XPYSO (GOLD). This is an on-going series which he continues to exhibit at various venues and he has created about 425 works in this series, and in this time span.   In 1990 began teaching at the Governor’s School for the Arts at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1998 Thomas began teaching a variety of courses in drawing, design, and painting at local universities and community colleges in the Washington DC metro area.   Currently, Thomas teaches drawing, painting, two-dimensional design, color theory, and cross-cultural visual language at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and Prince Georges Community College in Largo, Maryland.  Additionally, he has taught painting and drawing at the Corcoran School of Art and Design, and Northern Virginia Community College. Thomas has been involved in many studies abroad tenures to Greece and Italy in academic programs at the Corcoran School of Art + Design, Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.  He is represented in collections throughout the United States, Italy, Greece, France, Australia, and Germany.    

Artist's Statement

Artist Statement Sculptural Mixed Media Paintings by Thomas Xenakis The series XPYSO (GOLD) is an ongoing body of work. The XPYSO series is inspired by the scarred and defaced surfaces of the Medieval Byzantine iconographic image. The technical layers of the panel are wood (sometimes paper, acrylic or glass), glue, linen, gesso, bole, gold, paint, and varnish. Manipulation of the surfaces create dimension through sculpting, carving, punching, weaving, incising, and stamping using both additive and subtractive methods. My work is about the dimensional vectors of contemporary life. These works visually address the energized, frantic search for power, money, salvation of our selves, and our planet, in our quest for beauty and wholeness. The dimensionality of our search appears in, on, and above the surface of the panel. My goal is to communicate energy, color, texture, and movement using a variety of visual elements. I choose precious metals, primarily gold, to communicate light, color, and precious and reflective qualities. Most of these works are abstractions with little iconography or imagery. Images become cellular, organic, topographic, and/or cosmic in form and space. My newer works address earthly and cosmic ecologies imperative in a modern consciousness. Additionally, these gilded panels address the nature of light. Gold is symbolic of divinity but it is real, inner, and reflected light as well. Creativity (creation), enlightenment (light), and beauty (goodness) all are echoed through the use of gold leaf in these works. Random marks of various kinds are symbolic of humanity. Direction and kinetics in the works are the energy of these dualities striving for oneness. Our motivation to exist in this divine/human duality is inherent in many faith journeys. My work spring boards from these biological, physical, psychological, theological, and spiritual premises striving for natural union. Thomas Xenakis See www.xenakisarts.com