He initially studied painting under Panos Sarafianos and then at the School of Fine Arts under Yannis Moralis and Giorgos Mavroidis, as well as set design under Vasilis Vasileiadis. From 1968 to 1974 he travelled to North and South America and lived in Paris, London and West Berlin, where he had the opportunity to get to know both European art and modern currents, pop art and critical realism in particular.
Along with his painting he has been professionally involved with cartoons (1959-1984), working as a political cartoonist with newspapers and magazines, both in Greece and abroad. He was also involved with advertising, stage design and the illustration of books with cartoons and in this context published the album, Ο τρελλός και οι άλλοι (The Madman and the Others) (Montreal, 1969).
He started to exhibit in 1961 presenting his work in solo and group exhibitions of painting and cartoons in Greece and abroad.
The human face is at the center of his painting. Familiar faces or famous faces from the mass media are projected from within a metaphysical atmosphere and rendered with intense realistic detail derived from photographic depictions; this is then combined with an endeavor to penetrate into the personalities themselves with an emphasis placed on characteristic expressions. For a period his interest was focused on political subjects, as well as compositions of a metaphysical and surrealistic character, while in the latest stages of his work, though remaining faithful to his realistic style, he has turned to the depiction of stations on the Athens Underground, which tend to take on a symbolic character.
In 1876 he went to France where he originally studied law at Aix and then painting in private academies under Karl Cartier and Raphael Collin. In 1885 he returned to Greece and started working for the Greek magazine Το Άστυ and the Greek newspaper Ακρόπολη, illustrating various events of the period.
His exhibition activity included participation in the Olympia Exhibitions of 1888 (bronze medal) and 1896, the International Exhibition of Paris in 1900, at which he also received a bronze medal, and practically all of the artistic exhibitions between 1900 and 1940, such as those staged by the League of Greek Artists, of which was a member and also served as President of for many years, and those at the Parnassos Hall. He also exhibited in Smyrna (1902), Alexandria (1905 and 1909) and Rumania where he remained from 1907 to 1910 for family reasons. Even though he was not a member of the avant garde Art Group he applauded innovative ideas and three times presented works at its exhibitions (1917 and 1919). For many years he was also a member of the Society of Art Devotees as well as many artistic committees. From 1915 until his death he worked as a curator and preservationists at the National Gallery to which he willed his entire fortune as well as his personal collections of objects and works of art.
Fokas was one of the introducers of both the plein air movement and impressionistic trends into Greece and, in his time, was often considered daring, a real pathfinder. With the exception of a few portraits and still lifes, his painting focused on landscape, particularly that of Attica and Rumania, which he rendered with exceptional sensitivity to color and light.
Panos Sarafianos studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1940-1945; in 1956-1959, he went on to conduct post-graduate studies in fresco and pottery at the Istituto d’Arte in Rome. Back to Greece, he worked as a painter at the Archaeological Museum in Athens and taught at the art workshop he had established for a number of years. His work is anthropocentric, both in its earliest phase of solidly-structured figures, and later, when expressionistic traits and an abstract tendency prevailed. In his experimentation, he sought to fuse contemporary pursuits with the study of the Greek and Italian Renaissance art.
His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions in Greece. Sarafianos has also participated in group exhibitions in Greece and other countries.
