Aris Kalaizis is a Greek-born painter now based in Leipzig. His paintings are often charged by a strange ferocity, in which everything takes place at the same time – magic, grace, harmony, and an unfathomable abyss. Aris Kalaizis was born in 1966 in Leipzig, where he grew up as the son of a Greek political immigrants. After an apprenticeship in offset printing and lat-er having been trained as a photo technician, he began his studies in painting in 1992 at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, from which he graduated with summa cum laude in 1997. He was a master student of Arno Rink from 1997 to 2000. Influences have come to Aris in the person of his professor, during his studies, but in the most recent years, he increasingly has been inspired by the Baroque painter Jusepe de Ribera and the British artist Francis Ba-con. His first individual public exhibition took place in 2005. In 2007 he presented his works in New York for the first time. International recognition followed, after his participation at the Biennale di Venezia as well as at the 4th triennial in Guangzhou, China. In 2014/15 he painted The Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew or the double Martyrdom. This large-size paint-ing is since February 2015 in the Frankfurt Cathedral. Aris Kalaizis lives and works in Leipzig.