Theo Chronis (b. 1981) is a painter and digital artist based in Exeter, UK.
He trained at the Athens School of Fine Arts, graduating with honours in Contemporary Painting in 2006 after five years in the studio of Tassos Christakis, and has exhibited in Greece, the UK and the Netherlands since 2004. In 2015 he was among the last resident artists at the Art Students League of New York's Vytlacil Campus.
His work is built on a layered mixed media technique: oils, pastels, ink and watercolour, worked over and reworked until an image begins to surface. He starts without a subject and finds one in the marks, then holds it in a state of partial recognition rather than resolving it. Since 2016 he has extended the same process into digital work, combining painted fragments, 3D modelling and glitch. Physical and digital pieces are parts of one practice rather than separate ones.
Recurring subjects include the human figure, myth, and figures that spiral into themselves. His main series, Qualia, comes out of a long engagement with mimesis and perception, and asks the viewer to complete an image the work deliberately leaves unfinished.
Theo Chronis in studio, Athens, 2016
Bio & Shows
Solo Exhibitions
2020, Malou Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
2015, Gallery Alexandros, Athens, Greece
2013, Pragma.gr Exhibition Space, Athens, Greece
Two-Person Exhibitions
2016, ThisSideUp, with Wiktoria Deero, One Carter Lane (curated by Moorhouse Art), London, UK
2004, Two-person exhibition with Thrafia (Panagiotis Daniylopoulos), 365 Art Project Cafe, Athens, Greece
Group Exhibitions
2023, Digital billboard exhibitions with Artcrush, shown across NFT NYC, Lagos (Nigeria), and Amsterdam
2019, Charity group exhibition, LHC Design, Exeter, UK
2017, Lethe and Alethia, Η Στοά του Βιβλίου, Athens, Greece
2016, Μεταμόρφωσις: Beyond Shapes, ArtMoorHouse (in association with Malou Art Consulting), London, UK
2015, Group exhibition, Malou Art Consulting space, Athens, Greece
2011-2014, Group exhibitions, Zographi.GR, Athens, Greece
2011, Group exhibition, 11th Panhellenic Architecture Conference, Zappeion Megaron, Athens, Greece
2008, The Human Form in Art, Chamber of Visual Arts of Greece, Athens, Greece
2008, Group exhibition, ArtTower Gallery, Athens, Greece
2006, "Dialogue with Rembrandt" group exhibition, Athens, Greece, and The Hague, Netherlands
Residencies
2016, Artist Residency, Vogiatzoglou Art Space, Ktirio B, Greece
2015 (June), Art Students League of New York Residency, Sparkill, NY, USA