Family, heritage, and personal history are as unique as a fingerprint, and as such have offered perennial inspiration to contemporary artists. Looking to family albums and familial histories, artist Kiriakos Tompolidis taps these sources to excavate ideas around identity, belonging, and home through his paintings.

On view through January 15, 2025, artist Kiriakos Tompolidis (b. 1997) is the subject of his first-ever solo exhibition with Galerie Judin in Berlin, “The More It Hurts, the Less It Shows.” Originally from Essen, he studied painting at the Universität der Künste Berlin until just this past summer, and in 2023 undertook his first residency at Danny First’s the Cabin LA. Despite still being at the earliest stages of his career, Tompolidis has developed a distinctive visual lexicon that speaks to the greater themes he interrogates.

Kiriakos Tompolidis, Mother and Daughter (2024). Photo: Trevor Good. Coutesy of the artist and Galerie Judin, Berlin.

Within the works on view in “The More It Hurts, the Less It Shows,” Tompolidis takes focus on the journey of his grandparent who emigrated from Greece to start a new life in Germany. Manifestations of and emphasis on assimilation over the generations resulted in a sense of differing worlds and worldviews, which Tompolidis explores respectively in his paintings. Across the 16 works included in the show, compositional structures and recurring motifs reference not only the artist’s own lived experience but reflections on shared culture and the abstract processes finding—and feeling—a sense of belonging.

Kiriakos Tompolidis, Tetelestai (Triptych) (2024). Photo: Trevor Good. Coutesy of the artist and Galerie Judin, Berlin.

In Self-portrait with Curtain (2024), the artist depicts himself, alone, in a sparsely outfitted dining area, lending emphasis to the details of each individual element. The vintage, flower-printed curtain, a minute evil eye charm hanging from a cupboard, a lone white teapot on the table, and the artist looking over his shoulder and out at the viewer. Here, a creeping sense of isolation and silence pervade the work, alongside the distinctive motifs that allude to the cultural context, and the figures gaze offer symbolic understandings of how the artist navigates their present.

In Mother and Daughter (2024), the backdrop and figurative arrangement directly reference the artistic traditions of the Greek Orthodox church. Rather than be direct indicators of religion, however, they instead point to broader understandings of cultural signifiers and traditions that persist across borders and time.

“The More It Hurts, the Less It Shows” is a compelling and deeply personal debut for the emerging artist, offering insight into his technical and thematic development.

“Kiriakos Tompolidis: The More It Hurts, the Less It Shows” is on view at Galerie Judin, Berlin, through January 25, 2025.