David Sampethai - A better tomorrow

A better tomorrow (diptych)

Watercolor, ink, colored pencil and oil pastel on paper

44x32cm

2021

David Sampethai works across the fields of drawing, printmaking, artist books, sculpture, tapestry, sound/music and writing, with painting always at the center of his practice. 

He loves painting the most because he believes it is the best way to say something you can’t exactly put your finger on.  Through his paintings, a distinctly personal form of storytelling emerges, sometimes employing narration techniques of different mediums such as soundtracks, audio-guides and sound design. True to painting’s strongest attribute however, it reveals as much as it withholds.

Often, he alternates between two painting modes. He begins by working fast on a large number of small works, often on paper or ceramic tiles, through which themes, characters and associations first surface. When he feels like he is pulling on a thread, he proceeds to work simultaneously on large paintings. There, decision-making casts a heavier shadow and a layered process of addition, erasure and looking, slowly unfolds. Elements from the smaller works are revisited and expanded on, arriving however, once again, somewhere unexpected.

He is represented by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery (Athens, Greece). Recent exhibitions include In A Bright Green Field (2025) organized by DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, presented at Benaki Museum and curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator at the New Museum, Salon (2025) by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery in collaboration with Galerie Max Hetzler, We, The Monster (2024) with Malvina Panagiotidi at MOMus – Experimental Centre for the Arts, curated by Orestis Andreadakis, Ithakis 42 (2026) by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery, Ceramics Second Edition (2026) by Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery in collaboration with The Great Design Disaster and The Collective Purr (2024) curated by Nadja Argyropoulou.