Born in Greece, Maria Xagorari was raised in the bright light of the Aegean Sea. Her love for the arts begun at an early age at the house of her grandfather, a poet and an art lover. In her early teens she had already decided that art was a one way street for her.

She studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, under professor Vangelis Dimitreas. Her subject matter has always been man and light. Her work she likes to define as expressionist realism. The first years after graduation she produced a number of self portraits and portraits of friends, focusing on the expressive power of the gaze. As her art was maturing she became interested in a more universal approach of the human condition and she turned to life size human figures, caressed by natural or imaginary light, telling their own stories of emotions. Her pictorial space is often shallow, with her figures in primo piano like the alto-relievo of the ancient Greek sculpture. The bright light and pure color in her painting relate to her beloved Mediterranean landscape and pictorial tradition.

Maria Xagorari lives and works between Syros, Greece and Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Since 2000 she has been teaching drawing and painting to architecture, interior and graphic design students and has worked at numerous mural painting projects, in public as well as private buildings. Her work has been shown in numerous shows in Greece, Italy and Israel. Her paintings are found in private collections and the permanent collection of the Municipal Gallery of Ermoupolis.

Solo Shows

2014 “The Precept of the Fields”, Argo Gallery, Athens

2013 “En Route”, Y&E Vatis Gallery, Ermoupolis

2012 “Within Walls”, Light House Gallery, Old Jaffa, Israel.

2011 “Within Walls”, Ermoupolis Gallery, Syros and Mykonos Municipal Gallery.
2008 “Tiempos de Espejos”Maria Xagorari and Karen Kruse, Ermoupolis Gallery, Syros, Greece.
2006 “The Gaze. Body and Mind”, Tsiropina Mansion, Syros, Greece.
2004 “Maria Xagorari” Ermoupolis Gallery, Syros, Greece.

Group Shows

2014 “En-technos”, Technopolis Gazi, Athens.
2014 RED, Y&E Vatis Gallery, Syros, Greece.
2013 Open Art Studios, Syros, Greece.
2013 “Wine and Vine”, Yiannis & Eleni Vatis Gallery, Syros, Greece.
2012 “First Page”, Argo Gallery, Athens
2011 “Myself, the other” group show, AENAON Gallery, Athens.
2011 Group show, Art Space Gallery, Santorini, Greece.
2010 Group show, Oia, Santorini, Greece
2009 “Human Form in Art”, Technopolis, Athens.
2007 “ArtProcess” group show, Trapani, Italy.