Five decades of Mykonos through the eyes of Brian Aurelio Piccini

For more than five decades, Canadian-born painter Brian Aurelio Piccini has been observing, documenting, and reimagining Mykonos through his art. The exhibition Painting with the Canvas, curated by Irene Savvani and presented at the Municipal Gallery of Mykonos “Maria Iglessi,” (Matogianni & Kalogera Halls) brings together works spanning different periods of the artist’s career, offering a visual journey through the island’s landscapes, people, and changing identity.

More than a retrospective, Painting with the Canvas forms part of the Municipal Gallery of Mykonos’ summer exhibition programme, a season dedicated to artists whose work is deeply intertwined with the island’s cultural identity. Within this context, Piccini’s paintings offer not only an artistic perspective but also a rare visual testimony of Mykonos across more than five decades of transformation.

Born in Canada in 1952, Piccini began studying painting at an early age under acclaimed Canadian artist Don Portelance, who recognized in his work a distinctive blend of romanticism, impressionism, and subtle surrealist influences. Seeking a place where natural light could become an essential component of his artistic practice, Piccini first visited Mykonos in 1971. The encounter proved transformative. Faced with the luminous Cycladic landscape after an autumn rain, he discovered the quality of light he had long been searching for and soon chose to make the island his permanent home.

Over the decades, Piccini has become a unique witness to Mykonos’ social and cultural transformation. His paintings capture everyday scenes, portraits, and views of the island across different moments in its history, preserving fragments of a world that has gradually evolved under the influence of tourism and modernization.

Central to his artistic language is the masterful use of the dry brush technique. Through delicate layers and restrained application of pigment, light seems to emerge from within the canvas itself, creating images that hover between presence and absence. As the artist describes his process: “I do not paint on the canvas, but with the canvas.”

The exhibition includes both earlier color works and a more recent series of black-and-white paintings based on photographs taken by the artist himself. These works reveal a quieter Mykonos: fishermen by the waterfront, children wandering through narrow alleys, figures gathered in cafés, scenes from Little Venice, and moments of everyday life before the island’s dramatic transformation. Together, they form a valuable archive of collective memory while exploring themes of light, materiality, time, and loss.

Seen together, these works reveal an artist who has spent a lifetime observing the subtle dialogue between light, landscape, and memory. At a moment when Mykonos is often viewed through the lens of contemporary tourism, Piccini’s paintings invite viewers to rediscover the island through quieter, more intimate images that continue to resonate across generations.