Body Series 13.2, Untitled

The movement seemingly frozen in the photographic image is combined by Koukouwitakis with the traces of a second motion, that of the drawing and painting hand. He achieves this by overlaying his captured shots, peeled off onto transparent supports known as photo foils, with painted and drawn areas. His means involve painterly and graphic gestures, executed quickly and decisively, allowing little room for corrections and therefore demanding the highest concentration.

The artist was born in Greece in 1956 and studied at the University of Duisburg in Germany, where he also has his own artistic studio.
Koukouwitakis was also part of the founding of the Atelier am Springweil and won several prizes and scholarships such as the artist exchange between the city of Duisburg and the Artists' Association of the USSR in 1986 and the sponsorship award of the Great Art Exhibition NRW Düsseldorf in 1991.

Since 1979, there have been solo exhibitions and participation in exhibitions throughout Germany and internationally, such as in Russia and China.
Koukouwitakis is a member of the Düsseldorf Artists Association, Association for the Organization of Art Exhibitions. V. and in the West German Artists' Association.

His artistic process is unique: The carefully considered photographic images are printed onto photo films and finally combined in a further process with traces of a second movement, that of the drawing and painting hand. His means are gestural painting, smearing, dripping, running, doodling - painterly and graphic gestures that are executed quickly and decisively, hardly allow any corrections and therefore require the utmost concentration. The result of this combination of painting and photography is a clearly noticeable, extraordinary spatiality.

Movement, drama, pathos, they require direction in order not to drift into chaos or arbitrariness. Koukouwitakis does not just direct when he takes his photos. He also directs the arrangement of his works, as many of his works are multi-part and consist of an considerable number of image objects of the same format. As a block or hung in a row, they convey to us the sequence of an event and make us think of comics or a series of film stills.