– Elli Kaplani Kokkini

The historian and art critic, Elli Kaplani Kokkini, wrote to us about the work of Eumorfia: “Restless and creative, Eumorfia Tsikouri-Zagoriti has shown an important cultural work in Polygyros, the place where she lives. She studied at the Pedagogical Department of Pre-School Education in Aristotel Univercity of Thessaloniki focused on its history, culture and folklore.

Her interest and first performances in art starts from her childhood. With an innate talent and living in a family environment with artistic concerns, her father Aristides, with talent in drawing, and her sister, Georgia, in ceramics and painting, let her follow the paths of art

She first took her first painting lessons from a local painter, Katie Zieba, basically inspired in the mixing and possibilities of colors.

She continued her studing in drawing with pencil and charcoal near George Arsenis, a graduate of Aristotel Univercity of Fine Arts,  in Polygyros.

For 4 years she attended Hagiography classes in Galatista Halkidiki’s with the hagiographer Nikolaos Zekios, choosing techniques of the Macedonian School. Together with their team and teacher, she participated making Hagiographies for the chapel of Agia Kyriaki in Galatista.

Her love for photography begins a little later.

In her travels, the camera is a tool of action and her sharp gaze can now capture everything that goes unnoticed by the eyes of others.

Her parallel action in the creation of cultural institutions and events of multicultural character in the place of her residence, but also in the wider area of ​​Halkidiki has acted as a catalyst, arising from her personal need to highlight the thread of a timeless continuity, from the past to the requirements of modern seasonal. The raw material of this area in the fields of history, tradition and folklore and the creative concerns of local artists, expressed through painting, sculpture, engraving became the occasion to lead the founding of the Association of Fine Arts in Polygyros (SKETP) 2012 of which she was president for the period 2012-2013. In this Club, individual and group exhibitions, speeches, music events and other cultural activities take place throughout the year.

Her efforts include the art events that take place in the summers in the mines of Gerakini for the last 4 years, the warehouses as they are known to the locals.

In 2016, she participated there in the fourth group exhibition of the association with photographic material taken from the peculiarities of the special space, which she framed with an installation of the workers’ uniform. A space where the natural configuration of the mined white stone evokes landscape of special beauty. Taking artistic photos from places where nature grows and the artful stitching, in some cases, shots from areas such as the technical support mining system, the lit kiln and the mineral environment, create a historical autopsy puzzle, an attractive channel of pictorial panorama. Poetic and the subtitle in the triptych published, “Greek white stones: Artistic approaches of a timeless symbiosis”.

In her own painting with oils initially and acrylics afterwards, without thematic commitments, she has indulged in depictions dictated by a mood of pluralism, quest and value rules.

We observe her interest in the human form, especially the female, in outdoor and urban landscapes and still lifes.

Her figures sometimes appear to pose in an enigmatic style, sometimes in profile and sometimes with their backs turned to the viewer, looking at indefinite environments. In its outdoor landscapes the marine element seems to indicate island faces, with reference points chapels and shores or serene faces with small colored boats. In the cities it is obvious that she has been inspired by characteristic places of Thessaloniki such as the White Tower and the castles of Ano Polis.

Still lifes are dominated by fruits and household utensils, as well as indoors with familiar personal items.

The collage, with pastes of paper images of the time in painting sets, is part of its most recent experimental efforts.

The character of a recent work is symbolic, where on the mapped prefecture of Halkidiki the image of a little girl with the Greek flag in her hand, under the transparent face of the Virgin Mary on the right, marks significant historical events of the place.

In every project of Evmorfia Zagoritis, there are ambitious approaches, of discovering expressive codes.

Her willingness to experiment, to work with more energy, to apply different treatments, to discover ways of analyzing images and colors, declares that she has sensitivities which she serves with zeal and reserve of soul “

-Tsikoulas Ioannis

Multifarious and original, high level artist. Congratulations. “Earth’s gold” shocking!