Dimitris MICHLIS was born in Achna, Famagusta, Cyprus, in 1954 and died in 2019.

He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art in London, where he completed both BA and MA studies. Among his teachers was the Polish-born painter Joseph Herman. During the periods he spent in Cyprus, he worked at the Art Workshop in Limassol together with his brother Pambos Michlis and other artists.

Michlis became known as a Cypriot painter whose work combined strong figurative expression with a deep attachment to the Cypriot landscape, nature and human presence. His paintings often explore figures, portraits, trees, mountains, coastal views and symbolic compositions, rendered with emotional intensity and a personal sense of colour and form.

His artistic language is characterised by expressive brushwork, strong chromatic contrasts and a direct, instinctive approach to composition. Through bold figures and landscapes, Michlis created works that reflect both personal experience and the wider atmosphere of Cyprus, moving between observation, memory and inner feeling.

In 1986, together with Garth Frost, he founded the shadow puppet theatre “To Pidichto Lemoni” (The Jumping Lemon), an initiative that reflected his wider interest in visual storytelling, performance and creative experimentation.

Dimitris Michlis presented his work in solo and group exhibitions in Cyprus and abroad. He lived in Tochni and Australia and remains recognised as a distinctive Cypriot artist admired for the expressive force, sincerity and emotional depth of his work.