Patmos – Mysterious Guardian Island

The art exhibition “Patmos – Mysterious Guardian Island” by Ukrainian painter Tetiana Tsoubareva – Thomakou, will be presented from August 4 to 14, 2025, at the Patmion Cultural Center in Skala, Patmos.

Tetyana Tsoubareva-Thomakou, born in Kiev, has a strong artistic identity that combines academic technique, contemporary sensibility, and existential depth. Influenced by Eastern European tradition and Mediterranean iconography, her works unite different cultures through physicality, symbolism, and inner landscapes.

The artist, who studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kiev, has devoted much of her work and life to Greece, and in particular to Patmos, where she has lived and worked since 2008. Her special relationship with the island—its light, its landscapes, the uniqueness of its settlement pattern, but also its mystical depth—is reflected in each of her canvases.

The works presented do not simply depict the natural landscape of Patmos. Instead, they attempt a spiritual interpretation of the island as a “keeper of secrets” — a place that simultaneously preserves, conceals, and reveals. The viewer is invited to confront the concept of the Sacred, the representation of silence as presence and absence as the dynamic of the gaze.

The water element and the morphology of the island serve as both a backdrop and a symbol. The use of light, sometimes diffused and sometimes otherworldly, creates atmospheres that refer to intermediate worlds, such as dreams, memories, or mystical experiences. Repeating patterns, (fabrics, female figures, containers, ships, clouds), function as emblems, like personal or cultural archetypes.