Bio
Marios Karpikoudis was born in 1989 in Thessaloniki. As a son of a carpenter, he grew up in his father's workshop and began to craft his first wooden creations as a child. In 2013 he obtained his degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Serres. The country's socio-economic circumstances of that time prevented him from pursuing his field of study, so he decided to fully undertake his father's workshop in order to focus on the art of woodworking. He soon realized that although the work of a carpenter involved processing wood, it was rather procedural and lacked the creativity he was looking for. In 2014, he unexpectedly discovered the wood lathe and its art that was not very popular in his country. As a self-taught woodturner he experimented with various techniques and designs and participated in several gatherings of woodturners around Greece. Since then he has been giving lectures and seminars regarding this art and teaching both beginners and advanced students. His works have been published in art and woodcarving magazines and books and he has participated in various collective and individual exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
Background
Being self-taught, Marios Karpikoudis aimed to improve his techniques and to explore new perspectives for his creations. From the very first months of his practice, he developed a connection with other woodturners and since then he has participated in meetings in various woodturning workshops throughout the country where people of different ages exchange ideas and techniques in order to expand the craft. In the same context, he hosts meetings with experienced and amateur woodturners from Thessaloniki and the surrounding areas in his workshop every year.
In 2015 he demonstrated to pre-school children the making of a wooden spinning top at an event of the group Little Tree*. At the end of the event he offered spinning tops to all the children, and helped them colouring them.
Greek Woodturning Team
Since 2018 he has been an active member of the Greek Woodturning Team, a countrywide group that has contributed greatly to the development and promotion of the woodturning art, and very soon he became a key member of the administrative team. The group today consists of more than 2000 members from Greece, Cyprus and abroad and has participated in numerous cultural and social events as well as in community donations.
American Association of Woodturners
In 2019 he joined the American Association of Woodturners, the largest woodturning association worldwide and one of his piece has been featured in exhibitions held at the AAW's annual symposium in 2021.
In 2020 the Greek Woodturning Team organized the first nationwide meeting of woodturners in Kefalonia. A three-day event where woodturning techniques were presented for the first time in front of a larger audience. This nationwide meeting is now an established event where meetings are held every year in different locations around the country with increasing participation, where local and foreign woodturners present their techniques and discover new perspectives.
In 2021 he participated for the first time in the exhibition “New Makers” of Myro Gallery in Thessaloniki, followed by his participation in various online galleries, including the Wood Symphony Gallery, the most prestigious wood art gallery in the world. In 2022 his work will be featured in the 5th volume of the magazine "Masters of contemporary wood art".
*a self-organized educational project that acts according to the values of libertarian education and experiential learning