The emphasis on gesture as an experiential connection between the soul and nature, the symbol as a channel of communication with the mythical past, social and existential reflection as a counterweight to ineffective formalism and as a means of restoring the humanitarian dimension of art which lost with modernism, is only a part of the artist’s work.
Nikos Kokkalis was born in Corfu in 1966, he studied at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1984-1989). In 1993, and for two years thereafter, he was a postgraduate intern of the State Scholarship Foundation, with Professor Nikos Kessanlis.
In 2006, with Marilena Koskinas, he set up the OKKO Group to raise citizens’ awareness through Art. In 2016, he graduated as a PhD student of the Ionian University’s Department of Audio & Visual Arts, the title of his thesis being: “LIGHT AND INSTALLATIONS – The use of minimal natural light sources in interactive video installations”. Since 2017 he has been working in the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University as a member of the Special Teaching Staff. He has had 9 solo exhibitions and has created over 25 stage designs.