Nikos Karpodinis

Biography

Nikos Karpodinis worked as a traditional shoemaker in Paroikia, the main town of Paros, in a small, colorful workshop on a back street behind the market. Between repairs and commissions he painted, working on cardboard and choosing the everyday subjects around him: fishing boats in the harbor, windmills, churches, farm animals, and the people of the town. Holland Tunnel Gallery refers to him as "the late Paros shoemaker."

His connection to the gallery runs through Paulien Lethen, who lived on Paros from 1968 to 1982 and later opened a Holland Tunnel space on the island in 2000. Lethen saved several of his paintings, which she regards as valuable records of Parian life in the twentieth century. His work appeared in "Paros the Lovely," a Lethen-curated exhibition at the historic Azaris House in Paroikia devoted to the island as it was before mass tourism; a local friends-of-Paros association used the occasion to suggest a permanent municipal collection of such work. Twelve of his images were reproduced in the gallery's 2023 "Paros the Lovely" wall calendar. In 2025–26 Holland Tunnel Revisited in Newburgh presented "Paros Remembered," an exhibition of his paintings.

Practice. Small, brightly colored paintings on cardboard of daily life on Paros, including boats, windmills, churches, animals and townspeople, made in his shoemaker's workshop outside working hours.