The Municipality of Heraklion, the Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Municipal Gallery of Heraklion are hosting the first major retrospective exhibition dedicated to the work of the notable Heraklion-born painter Thomas Fanourakis (1915-1993).

After the tributes to his work which were published by the Vikelaia Municipal Library in 1990 and 2002, the Municipality of Heraklion pays homage –once again– to Thomas Fanourakis with a major retrospective exhibition in the city in which he lived and worked.

This major exhibition, which brings together for the first time works from the artist’s Donation to the Municipality and to the Municipal Gallery of Heraklion and works that were held in museums, collections and houses all over Greece, was made possible thanks to all those (individuals, museums and institutions) who agreed to share the works in their possession and in their collections with the public. Those concessions allowed for a comprehensive tribute to the painting work of Thomas Fanourakis to be hosted at St. Mark’s Basilica from 12 May 2026 to 12 September 2026.

The exhibition comprises a total of 125 paintings by Fanourakis which span five decades of his artistic journey from 1940, when he arrives in Heraklion following the completion of his studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts, to 1984, the year in which he decides to permanently abandon painting and closes his art workshop in Bedevi.

Structured into five main sections, the exhibition follows the painter’s work, starting at his early steps in watercolour during the hardships of the WWII Occupation, moving on to his intense experimentations of the 1950s and 1960s, when, like several of his fellow artists of the same generation, he searches for new paths, before progressively leading us to all those findings that would make up his painting proposal in the 1970s and 1980s.

As the curator of the exhibition, art historian Denise-Chloe Alevizou, explains, “in Fanourakis’ painting quests one recognizes the adventures of an entire era of modern Greek art that is marked by the search for “identity”. In his work, just as in that of many artists of his generation, the answer emerges through an introspective and constant dialogue with the art of painting itself.”

The collaboration of the Vikelaia Municipal Library with the Municipal Gallery of Heraklion, enhanced by the participation of the Society of Cretan Historical Studies and the Historical Museum of Crete, allowed for the inclusion of an important tribute in the exhibition: “Thomas Fanourakis & the Art of the Book”, a video-screening, which will run alongside the exhibition in a specially-designed space in St. Mark’s Basilica. It is a work that was jointly curated by Denise-Chloe Alevizou and Kostas Bournazakis and highlights the lesser-known aspect of Thomas Fanourakis’ activity, that of artistic editing and illustration of books.

The accompanying bilingual catalogue, with explanatory texts and photographs of all the artworks showcased in the exhibition, will be offered by the Municipality of Heraklion, the Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Municipal Gallery of Heraklion to all those individuals, museums and institutions that lent their works to the exhibition. It will be up for sale to the public throughout –and after– the exhibition, at the bookstore of the Vikelaia Municipal Library. It is a luxurious edition, which features a complete documentation of the exhibition as well as several previously unknown artworks by the distinguished artist that are being published for the first time.