Mela-Konstantinidi Natalia

She has studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1942-1947) with professors Kostas Dimitriadis and Michalis Tombros. She has also worked at Thanassis Apartis’s studio.

She has had solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad and taken part in group exhibitions, including Panhellenic exhibitions, exhibitions of the group “Armos” [Junction] (1949, 1950), of which she was founding member, and the Sao Paulo Biennale (1965).

From the beginning of her career until around 1960, Natalia Mela’s work was in a traditional vein, comprising for the most part commissions and busts, made in marble or stone. From around 1960, she has worked more frequently on metal, whose qualities played a substantial role in shaping her new aesthetic. Elements of abstraction now became very frequent in her work, without however completely abandoning the depiction of natural objects. She drew her subjects from the natural and animal world, and mythology. In animal motifs especially she found fertile ground in order to capture the force and vitality of nature.