Artists
Giorgos Fessas
Giorgos Fessas was born in Katerini. In 1958 he moved to Athens where he was taught by the most prominent teachers Tsomidis, Gkolefas, Vasileiou, Kastriotis, Moralis, Andreou, Bicinci etc. He experimented with brass plates, stones, Indian ink, oil, pastel and acrylic, sculpting and mixed techniques compositions. He is fascinated with the metal though, which in his hands, becomes alive. At the same time he works with painting and byzantine hagiography. A few years later he invents a technique of mosaic engraving with oven enamel, impressing critics and collectors in Greece and abroad. He organized 93 personal exhibitions with several distinctions for his works such as Watkins Hall of London, 2nd prize at Tran Doit in Munich , Villa del Conte in Italy, Katowiche in Poland, Utsaza Budapest kespebek, Moson Mayarobar, Sopron world festival, Lion’s Vienna, Art Maison in Paris, 1st prize. His artworks can be found in various collections in Greece, USA, China, France, Italy, Africa, Australia, Belgium, Spain etc. Recently, he returned to his hometown, Katerini, continuing his artistic activities.
Kostas Kamperidis
Kostas Kamperidis is a sculptor. He was born in 1970 in Katerini, where he lives and works. He studied Fine Arts and sculpture under the apprenticeship of the artist Giorgios Markopoulos. He had many private exhibitions and he took part in collective exhibitions as well. Kamperidis has collaborated with the Musicology Ph.D., Dimitris Bakas in 2017, in a private exhibition featuring steel sculpture, which was held in the Ekavi Cultural Center, Pieria Artists' Association. The Philologist and Philosophy Ph.D. Omiros Xenidis, who overlooked three of his exhibitions, has written about the technical skills of Kostas Kamperidis. Another eminent Professor and Poet, Antonis Kalfas, also published many reviews and presentations of his artistic work focusing on “utopia” of Don Quixote, whose “mythological narrations” give emphasis on the reality of the contemporary cultural reality. His sculptural creations with the predominant use of metal, investigate the “unconscious”, where the limits between “fiction” and “reality”, “structure” and “representation” are eliminated. It is, at the same time, a systematic morphoplastic and design analysis and degradation of form. The methodology of his study is based on the experimentation with minimalism and geometric simplicity.
Athanasios Karamitas
Athanasios Karamitas was born in Domokos-Phthiotis in 1949. He completed his studies in the Mathematics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He also studied at the Thessaloniki School of Fine Arts having Kyriakos Mortarakos, Savvas Konstantinidis and Giorgos Tsakiris as his Teachers. He had private exhibitions, participated in several group exhibitions and illustrated several books. He is a member of the Association of Visual Artists of Northern Greece (SKETVE).
Dimitris Simeonidis
Dimitris Symeonidis (Boulis) was born in Katerini in 1952 and died in 2013. From an early age he began painting and took his first lessons with Anastasios Gkogkos (1925-1991). Then he continued on his own. He experimented with colors and techniques until he found his personal style. Using watercolor, oil, pastel etc. he improved his forms, compositions and landscapes. In the 1980s he traveled many times to Germany and quickly became well known. His works adorn private collections and professional spaces of Greeks and Germans.
Giannis Tsigaras
Was born and grew up in Katerini. He studied in École Superieure d’Art et Design Saint-Étienne and in École Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Monpellier, France . He now lives and work in Katerini, Greece, teaching painting and creating his own works and constructions. He has participated in many group and private exhibitions.
Sotiris Nestoras
Sotiris Nestoras is a Visual Artist born in Kolindro, Pieria on February of 1955. Artistic accomplishments: Conceptual Art, Modern Art, Embossed Iconography, Drawing, Metalwork, Mixed medium on wood and metal. Studies of Applied Arts. He is member of various fine art organisations and teams and he has had many solo and collaborative exhibitions across Greece. His works can be found in private collections in Greece and abroad.
Thomas Safetis
Thomas Safetis was born in 1973 in Katerini. As a child he showed love for the visual arts. He studied at the School of Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art of the TEI of Athens and until today he works as a conservator. At the same time, from a young age he practices the art of mosaic and painting (oil, tempera, watercolor). He took his first steps in the art of mosaic with his father Apostolos and the mosaicist Thomas Bogotsis. In 1996 he moved to Venice where he worked in the maintenance of the mosaics of St. Mark and at the same time apprenticed in a mosaic workshop with teacher Cucco Jiovani. His works adorn monasteries, temples and private collections. He has had solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions.
Olga Stamatiou
Olga Stamatiou was born in New York City and began painting in 1967. This relatively late start to her artistic career followed the discovery of painting as a vehicle for cathartic personal expression. At the age of eighteen, she went to live with relatives in Athens, Greece and it was there in the heady, intellectually charged, artistically-vibrant atmosphere of mid-1960’s that she was stirred to begin her formal artistic education, studying with the painter Ilias Dekoulakos. She remained in Greece until 1976, when she returned to the United States and embarked on further studies at Boston University’s School of Fine Arts, where she received her BFA and MFA degree in painting. She also completed a graduate program in Art Therapy at the Metropolitan College of Boston University. She lived in America for the next 20 years, exhibiting and working in the United States. In 1997, she returned once again to Greece with her husband to live and paint. During that time, she had exhibitions in Athens, Greece and Nice, France.
Spiridon Karelas
Spiridon Karelas was born in Katerini, Greece in 1973. His first encounter with the society of the fine arts was in 1978, at the age of 5 next to his mother , also a painter Eleni Karela. His first steps in painting begin with realism. In 1994 he attends successfully the “Karapiperio School of Byzantine Hagiography”. His studies and practices of the byzantine art continue in the Holy Temple of St George Koudouna in Pringipos Constantinople and are also crowned with success. He is assigned his first professional work in the Holy Temple of the Holy Trinity in Galata Korinthia in the Peloponisos. He continues his career in the following temples:•2001-2005 holy temple of St George in Kypseli Imathia,Greece.•2005-2007 holy temple of St Catherine in Neokastro Imathia,Greece.•2007-2011 holy temple of St Dimitrios in Neochori Imathia and the holymonastery of St Eleftherios in Karya Elassona,Greece.•2011-2014holy temple of Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Busteni, Romania •2014-2015 holy temple of Irini Chrysovalantous in Kardia, Thessaloniki and St George in Pilio, Kos,Greece.•2015-2016 participation in the hagiography of the holy temple of St George in Kordelio Thessaloniki, St Paraskevi in Menemeni, Thessaloniki and St konstantinos and Eleni in Assyros,Greece.At the same time he participates in exhibitions the most important of which are the following:1.19-27 November 1999Exhibition of mosaic and hagiography in Katerini for the celebration of the 70 years since the foundation of the municipality of Katerini.2.8-30 october 2012 exhibition of byzantine painting entitled: Portraits and Icons” Alatza Imaret, Thessaloniki3.3 May 2017 Exhibition of byzantine hagiography in the Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki entitled “Personalities in music”.4. 20 June 2011 Participation in the online contest entitled “ Europe today”,held by the metropolis of Kastoria, where he is awarded first prize for his nomination with his painting entitled “Crisis of moral values in the tights of time”.Spiridon Karelas live and works in Katerini, Greece. He is married and a father of two. He is recently conducting a series of research and studies in byzantine tradition for his book on byzantine art, and also works as a hagiographer. His work is mainly characterized by the Macedonian School of byzantine art.
Giannis Filippas
Giannis Filippas was born in Thessaloniki. From an early age he deals with Byzantine hagiography, while at the same time he is studying the Cretan and Macedonian schools.
With hard work and countless hours of work he succeeds a mature and special personal style and size in his works. He manages to perform with impressive loyalty his favorite subject, portraits are an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Human figures and faded looks are his biggest motivation. A continuous exploration of his abilities in rendering human emotions. Physiognomies that hide interesting stories in their eyes, drive the artist to create stunning, small-sized portraits that look incredibly vivid.
Giannis Filippas lives and works in the city of Thessaloniki.
Evaggelos Gounelas
Evangelos Gounelas was born in 1974 in Katerini. At a mature age he left for Australia where he studied at TAFE Orange NSW. He specialized in Digital Arts. After many years of personal and artistic research, he decided to be inspired by his hometown, where he now lives and creates.
George Papadopoulos - Design Nerd
George Papadopoulos was born in the city of Katerini in October 1982, where he
lives to this day. He has finished graphic design and interior decoration. From a very
young age he showed his love for the music he still plays today. Coming from a
working class, in recent years he discovered his love for carpentry and wood carving,
which is his main occupation now. The combination of graphic arts, decoration,
carpentry / wood carving, with innovative materials such as liquid glass, opened new
horizons of creativity, in which the only limit is the imagination.
Dimitris Bakas
Born in Katerini in 1975, Bakas studied Composition with Theodore Antoniou. In 2004 he moved in London for further studies in Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he was awarded an MMus and a PhD under the supervision of Roger Redgate. During his PhD he attended the Master in Electroacoustic Composition at Goldsmiths. In 2009 he was a shortlist composer at Sound and Music. For the academic year 2010-2011 Bakas was a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York (accepted by Tristan Murail). His music has been performed in the UK, Greece and USA and has successfully participated in competition and in residencies worldwide.
His music has been performed in the UK, Greece and USA and has successfully participated in competition and in residencies worldwide, while he participates regularly in conferences such as, Sonic Mmabolela (South Africa, 2013), Joint ICMC/SMS (Athens, 2014), 3rd-4rth- 5th Conferences for Acoustic Ecology (Athens, 2014 - Mitilini, 2016, Kalamata, 2019), Composer in Residence, Visby Centre for Composers (Sweden, Gotland, 2015 and 2017), ICMC (North Texas, 2015), AAWM and FMA (Thessaloniki, 2016), SMC (Cyprus, 2018), MOISA (Thessaloniki, 2019), etc
He is also active as a Sound Artist working mainly with Museums, such as, Sound Installation for the Museum of Greek Traditional Costumes V. Karelia (two Commissions); Site Specific Art for the Tower of Giannitsa (Commission by the Mayor of Giannitsa); Sound Installation for the Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and Thrace (Commission); Sound Installation for the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki; Sound Art work for a Group Exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid), etc.
Bakas has also frequently collaborated with other artists in the past in works for various media, such as, music for Apostolos Gaitanis’ documentaries The Valley of Eordea (broadcast on Al Jazeera TV in December 2008) and Citizen Journalism (3rd Prize, Broadcast Journalism training Council (BJTC), category: Current Affairs Feature, March 2009, Great Britain); Sound Installation in Collaboration with the Artist Xinyi Liu ( 176 Gallery, London, 2009); and music for education CD ROM, The Costakis Collection, in collaboration with Nikos Karatzoulis for the State Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, 2007), etc.
He is member of the Greek Composers Union (EEM), The Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA), the Contemporary Music Research Centre (KSYME), the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology (HSAE) and the temp’Ora Project.
Kyriakos Papalias
Kyriakos Papalias was born in 1962 in Alexandroupolis. Nowadays he lives and works in Thessaloniki. From 1980 to 1985 he studied at the Physics department at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. From 1988 to 1993 he studied at the School of Fine Arts of Thessaloniki in the painting department, under the teacher Makis Theofilktopoulos. In addition to his personal work in painting, he has been working since 1995 as an Art teacher in Secondary Education.
Dora Mavromatidou
Born in Katerini, where she lives...
Αγαπαει την Τέχνη ,και τον Πολιτισμό.
She attended Mosaic courses at the Center of Letters and Arts in Dion in the years 2018-2019.
Ερωτεύτηκε τις ψηφίδες και αγάπησε τα Ψηφιδωτά.
She spends many hours of her time creating Contemporary Mosaics.
She held her first Solo Exhibition June 15-21, 2022 at the Katerinis-Ekavi Conference Center .
In December 2022, she took part in the Group Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists of N. Pieria that took place at the Municipal School of Katerini on December 3-12.
The art-loving public is very warm to her works, this gives her the impetus to continue creating.
Sofronis Fragoudis
Sofronis Fragkoudis was born in Ptolemaida in 1948. His work is influenced by his birthplace, his Anatolian descent, traditional music and folklore in general. In his work he employs innovated techniques that enable him to express his reality. The realistic material tends to substitute our inner feelings and provokes the artist to destroy and restructure everything. The continuous switching between fantasy and reality represents the battle between the conscious and the subconscious. Nowadays, he lives in Thessaloniki while he works on graphic arts and fabric print design.
Matthew Varey
Matthew Varey was born in Ontario in 1968 and he is considered now an accomplished Canadian artist and educator. His studies enhanced his talent and dedication (McMaster University,1992 and D‘Youville College , 2004). He now lives and works in Toronto as Director of Contemporary Art at the Etobicoke School of the Arts. In 2016 he was awarded the Best Art Teacher of the Year Award. Varey began exhibiting his works in Ontario in '88. His exhibitions were inaugurated at the Hiroshima International Center for the Arts in Japan, in various galleries in Greece, in Berlin, U.S.A. and in Italy.
Stavros Apostolou
Stavros Apostolou was born in Veria. He was raised in Katerini and graduated from the Department of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2007. He studied landscape architecture in Vienna and postgraduate architecture studies in Madrid, where he also attended art seminars and painting lessons in private schools. He has been painting since he was 6 years old, attending classes with Stelios Mavromatis. He studied for 4 years byzantine hagiography with the teacher Konstantinos Xenopoulos. At the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he attended Art courses having as teachers K. Varotsos, D. Fragkos, D. Xonoglou and S. Panagiotakis. He has participated in many group exhibitions and has presented 3 private exhibitions. His works are in many private collections in Greece and abroad.
Alexandros Rapoutikas
Alexandros Rapoutikas was born on August 29, 1979 in Katerini. He is self-taught and works with realistic design. After a long personal search he decided to permanently settle in his hometown. Today he teaches painting to children and adolescents and actively participates in the Pieria Art Association. His works adorn various private collections.
Giannis Gogos
He was born in Lamia in 1954 and grew up in Katerini. He was interested in painting since the age of 7 and took his first lessons close to his father, Anastasios Gkogkos. At the age of 13 he went to Thessaloniki where he attended classes of painting and Byzantine Iconography. In 1972 he went to Paris to study in École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts. He spent the next 14 years in the French capitol and then returned to his homeland in 1986. Dedicated to abstract expressionism, organizes his own atelier and nowadays he lives and works in Katerini.
Iordanis Poimenidis
He was born in Katerini, Greece. Dedicated since 2004 to steel sculpture, he uses recyclable objects from passed decades. Although he is an autodidact, he took part in various exhibitions in Greece. In 2006 he collaborates with the eminent sculptor Theodor Papayannis and his assistant Kostas Vrittias. His steel sculpture works of different sizes, decorate public squares and private collections.
Athanasios Stathakopoulos
The painter, Athanasios Stathakopoulos was born in Katerini in 1942. He took his first classes on painting close to Charalampos Tsomidis and after that he worked for eight years close to the eminent painter Anastasios Gkogkos, gaining great experience in portraits. Since 1967 he has been working exclusively as a painter having his own atelier in Katerini.
He was a founding member and director for 8 years of the Association of Visual Artists in his birthplace and he has had many solo and collaborative exhibitions across Greece. His artworks decorate not only private Collections in Greece and abroad but also Public Organizations.
Evangelia Giannikou
Evangelia Giannikou was born in Katerini in 1968. She graduated from jurisprudence and after that she studied the pottery art, in Olia Delatola’s artist studio, in Thessaloniki. During many years she took classes of freehand drawing and painting. She had private exhibitions, and participated in several group exhibitions. Nowadays she lives in Katerini where she owns her artist studio.
Chryssa Thomopoulou
Chryssa Thomopoulou was born in 1989 in Katerini. She has graduated in the Department of Psychology of the University of Crete and practices the profession of psychologist. Her penchant for painting developed almost as soon as she learned to hold a pencil. She deals with black and white sketching on paper, using pencil and charcoal, and often incorporates in her technique pastel and acrylic paints in watercolor. He has been involved in digital design for the last few years. Most of her drawings depict abstract portraits and surreal landscapes, with a mixture of techniques (soft pencils, watercolors, ink, acrylic), repeating patterns and geometric shapes. He has edited book covers and poetry collections, music album covers, illustrations, while she has also dealt with graphic art in the design of business cards and flyers.
Theodoros Brouskomatis
Theodoros Brouskomatis is an exciting Greek architect, painter and sculptor whose works have featured in exhibitions, publications and collections nationally. With a unique specialty in shrines for late famous figures, he builds diorama boxes out of plywood, glass and various fabrics, photographs, beads and sequins. Intentionally kitsch and undeniably interesting, his artistic signature is a standout. He has a large number of personal and group exhibitions in his CV.
Alexandra Billa
The artist Alexandra Villa was born and raised in Katerini! He holds a degree in Food Technology from the International University of Thessaloniki. It has been dedicated exclusively in recent years to the art school of Eliatoras Art. The road to Art was one-way, as she states. From a young age she won the painting, design and creation of jewelry and in recent years, alternative sculpture. Her canvas is now the wire, the brush, the paper tape, the clay and the newspapers! She has participated in various group exhibitions and her works adorn private collections in England, USA, Australia and the Netherlands.
Irini Gavri
Irini Gavri was born on March 23, 1976 in Thessaloniki. She lives and works in Litochoro, Pieria. He is a self-taught painter. In 1999 she started her first steps with constructions working with various materials such as clay, plaster, copper, glass, etc. But painting always caused her a strange attraction. In 2003 she decided to take up painting, studying the history and works of great painters. She has taken part in many group exhibitions while presenting 3 solo exhibitions. Her works are in private collections.
Tania Miliou
Η Τάνια Μήλιου γεννήθηκε και μεγάλωσε στη Σκύδρα Ν.Πέλλης και είναι Υπαξιωματικός του Λιμενικού Σώματος. Αφού ολοκλήρωσε την βασική της εκπαίδευση στον κλάδο πληροφορικής εισήχθη στο τμήμα Πολιτικών Έργων Υποδομής στη Θεσσαλονίκης. Παράλληλα εργάστηκε σε τοπικό τηλεοπτικό σταθμό της Θεσσαλονίκης, στο δημιουργικό τμήμα διαφήμισης ως κειμενογράφος, όπου εκπαιδεύτηκε σε γραφιστικά προγράμματα. Το 2002 κατά την διάρκεια των σπουδών της κατατάχτηκε στο Λιμενικό Σώμα. Λόγω της ειδικότητάς της, τοποθετήθηκε στο Ινστιτούτο Ιστορίας Εμπορικής Ναυτιλίας του Υπουργείου, όπου ουσιαστικά ξεκίνησε συστηματικά την ενασχόλησή της με τη δημιουργία και την επεξεργασία εικόνας.
Η αγάπη της για την τέχνη της ζωγραφικής ήρθε λίγο αργότερα, το 2010, από ανάγκη για δημιουργία και από την αγάπη της για τα χρώματα. Οι πρώτοι πίνακές της ήταν πίνακες μεικτών τεχνικών. Με τον καιρό κατάφερε να εξελίξει το προσωπικό της ύφος δημιουργώντας πλέον έργα σε καμβά και ξύλο, επηρεασμένα από το κίνημα του αφηρημένου εξπρεσιονισμού.
Smaro Pyretzi
Smaro Pyretzi was born in Serres. Her creative engagement with colors began consciously from childhood, while her first artistic success came at the age of 14 with the participation of three (3) works in the pan-Hellenic secondary school competition, winning second place in a tempera painting. Great admiration and inspiration was, Chr. Melidis, an accomplished artist from Serres, who led her to pen design for several years.
At the same time, she continued with the design of decorative patterns on clothes and textiles and with large-scale wall paintings.
The systematic artistic research begins
-In 1999 with oil painting lessons at the fine arts workshop of Mrs. Tarsis Tzenanidou, Thessaloniki.
-In 2000, hagiography in the fine arts workshop of Mrs. Tarsis Tzenanidou
-From 2001 to 2004 Byzantine iconography with Mrs. E. Souri at the artistic workshop of the Municipality of Kalamaria
-From 2002 to 2004 Byzantine mosaic with Mrs. E. Souri at the artistic workshop of the Municipality of Kalamaria
-From 2004 to 2006 Byzantine design and color with Mrs. S. Amperidou at the Vafopouleio Spiritual Center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki
-In 2005 sketch lessons with Mr. Nikolaidis at the Vafopouleio spiritual center of the Municipality of Thessaloniki
-In 2005, a three-month cycle of Byzantine iconography with Mr. S. Pantzaridis, at the theological school of A.P.Th.
-From 2005 to 2007 Byzantine iconography, design and color with Mr. G. Kordis, in the "Armos Thessaloniki" library
-In 2005, a degree in organizing cultural events from the OAED school
-From 2011 to 2013, monitoring Byzantine mosaics with Mr. A. Giannios, at I.N. Three Hierarchs, Thessaloniki
-In 2013, Byzantine icon painting in the Maximian spiritual center of Serres
-In 2014 to 2016, seminars on techniques of the Holy Mount of Byzantine iconography with Mr. K. Xenopoulos in Thessaloniki
-From 2017 to 2019 she studied conservation and restoration of works of art at the department of applied arts of the 7th EPAL Thessaloniki - Euclid
-In 2019 training with the art conservator and voter E. Mimi
-In 2020 and 2022 mosaic seminars with the conservator and mosaicist Mr. Th. Safetis in Dion Pieria.
