Dimitris Tzamouranis’s Mare Nostrum revisits the Mediterranean not as a picturesque seascape, but as an arena of human presence and absence. The title — Latin for “our sea” — recalls the region’s long history as a crossroads of trade, cultures and civilisations, while the paintings also register its current role in global migration narratives.

Emerging from journeys through the Aegean and to sites of shipwrecks, the works depict the sea with a measured stillness: empty horizons and shimmers of water that resist romantic naturalism. Human drama is not shown directly but inscribed in the paintings’ titles, which correspond to the geographic coordinates of lost vessels. The focus remains on the sea’s surface and force, sidestepping media imagery to make palpable what is often unseen.

The series comprises a dozen large-format oils alongside smaller studies, all harnessing a restrained painterly language rooted in maritime tradition yet charged with contemporary urgency. One of the expansive canvases from this cycle was featured at documenta 14 in Kassel, underscoring the work’s resonance beyond the gallery context.