Maria Genitsariou, born in 1966 in Piraeus, is a visual artist and calligrapher with a particular focus on the evolution of Greek calligraphy. Devoted to art from a young age, she studied graphic arts and painting, while constantly seeking new expressive possibilities through writing. In 1993, she discovered Greek calligraphy and decided to study it at the Palaeography Department of the Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece (MIET) under Professor Agamemnon Tselikas. Her aim is to collect and study Greek typeforms and to reproduce their writing and illumination tools. Using writing as the primary medium of her art, she creates works that incorporate diverse letterforms, transforming them into visual compositions. She has presented her work in numerous exhibitions and teaches calligraphy in seminars; she has also served as a calligraphy instructor at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). Her works are included in private collections and in collections of international institutions in Greece and abroad, including museums in Vienna and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. Believing in the inexhaustible potential of calligraphy, she participates in programmes promoting it in Greece and internationally, and has collaborated with the ARC – Art Revisited Collective since June 2021.

Detailed information about the calligrapher and visual artist is available on her website HERE.

About the installation
Taking as its point of departure the myth of Heracles’ labour in the Garden of the Hesperides, I turn to the symbol of the Tree of Life as it appears in major theosophical traditions, particularly in relation to humanity’s effort to connect, within and beyond the self, three realms: the world beneath the earth, the world upon its surface, and the world of the sky, as well as two distinct fields of creation, the visible and the invisible. This does not concern their conquest (Heracles returns the apples), but rather the attainment of knowledge of these realms and an awareness of the human position within them. It is a knowledge that renders the individual a conscious creator, aware of their role and choices—especially in the contemporary reality in which technology seems to overshadow human intelligence and to relegate the rational being to the margins.

Presentations
First presentation: 30th PLOES: P. & M. Kydonieos Foundation, 27/07–29/09 2024, Andros, curated by Athina Schina
Second presentation: Human Exception, annual exhibition of the visual artists’ collective ARC – Art Revisited Collective, Alma Mater, Athens 2025, curated by Paris Kapralos