The self-taught painter Fonis (Xenophon) Zoglopitis was born in Thessaloniki in 1930 and passed away in the same city in 2015.
From the age of five, he lived in Polygyros, in what he described as a harsh and anti-intellectual environment, where he worked as a bank teller. He was a close friend of the physician and self-taught painter Panos Papanakos, who introduced him to Dinos Christianopoulos and Karolos Tsizek. During a visit to his home in Polygyros in 1972, together with Stelios Mavromatis, they recognized the value of his work. He immediately began exhibiting at the Little Art Gallery ‘Diagonios’ of Christianopoulos (1974), subsequently moved to Thessaloniki, and from 1975 onwards devoted himself entirely to painting.
In his painting (exclusively oils), he was influenced by the work of Nikos Fotakis and Giorgos Paralis. He painted houses and streets of Polygyros and Thessaloniki, landscapes from Polygyros, Sithonia, Galatista, and Kelli (as well as Mani and various islands), and the magnesite mines of Gerakini and Petalidas. His work creates a depressive atmosphere intensified by a palette of dark, cool tones or harsh brownish-red shades and the complete absence of living beings. He also painted a few nudes and portraits, as well as bus passengers.
From 1991 to 1995, he operated the ‘Ochra’ Gallery in his studio (together with the painter Vasilis Ioannidis), organizing solo and group exhibitions.
He was a founding member of the Association of Fine Arts Artists of Northern Greece (SKETBE).
He held solo exhibitions in Thessaloniki, Afytos, Kastanies (Pelion), Polygyros, and Kilkis, and participated in group exhibitions in Thessaloniki, Athens, Nicosia, Volos, Luxembourg, Bonn, and Cologne (1989). He participated in exhibitions at Dinos Christianopoulos’s Little Art Gallery ‘Diagonios’, featuring a solo exhibition in 1974, a joint exhibition with G. Anastasiadis and P. Papanakos in 1978, and 98 group exhibitions between 1974 and 1993.