Sulla sua Arte
Menelaos Kourkouvelas was born in Larissa, Thessaly,
Greece in 1982.
He comes from the village of Kokkina Perivleptou in Thessaly
and lived in Volos until he came of age.
In 2000 he was admitted in the
Naval Academy through the Panhellenic Examinations process.
He moved to Athens
for his studies at the Academy and the performance of his official duties.
Since 2002 he has been serving in the warships of the Hellenic Navy. In 2013 he
was transferred to the Naval Station of Crete in Souda, where he has been
serving up to now..
In Chania, he came into contact with the Cretan, the
Venetian and the Ionian schools of iconography and attended classes in the
workshop of the painter-hagiographer Fotini Mavromati.
The highlight of this
course was his participation in the exhibition of Byzantine visual art
"Art Light" held in the Venetian church of Agios Roccos in the area
of Splantzia Chania. His participation in the exhibition received positive
comments and was also mentioned by the local press of Magnesia, his homeland.
His hagiographic work is characterized by respect and
reverence. He uses traditional materials bequeathed by the masters of the
Cretan school of iconography. He works in art, adopting the old standards
of the Cretan hagiographers with precision and fidelity, always
following the dictates of the Church's tradition.
According to the artist, dealing with the sacred
art of hagiography is not a simple process that represents something earthly
and everyday.
The art of hagiography must be practiced with reverence and deep
spirituality, observing the rules and walking into the steps of the great
masters of this sacred art
Finally yet importantly, various works of the artist
adorn private collections in Greece, Holland and Austria.
