He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1923-1930), graduating from the workshop of Konstantinos Parthenis. From 1930 to 1958 he worked with the Archaeological Service as an artistic advisor and designer. In the same official capacity he also worked for the Directorate of Historical Monuments and Archaeology during the period 1943-1956, at the same time taking part in many excavations and archaeological investigations. These investigations resulted in a wealth of drawings, which were published in archaeological journals and books. Moreover, on a scholarship from the Italian state, he observed the methods of preservation and cleaning of wall paintings, mosaics, icons, documents and papyri in Italian workshops. In 1962, he was elected professor to the seat of Painting in the Department of the Visual Arts in the Technical School of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, and was an important teacher.

A member of the Spirit-Level and Workshop groups, he presented his work in their exhibitions as well as in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, such as the Biennales of Alexandria in 1958, Sao Paolo in 1961 and Venice in 1968, where his works were presented just a few months after his death. In 1989 retrospective exhibitions were organized at the National Gallery and the Vellidio Cultural Center of Thessaloniki.

After starting out with figurative depictions done in an academic style, he moved on in his painting to abstract forms with an expressionistic character, experimenting at the same time with the use of various materials and the results achieved with them on a painting surface. Later he moved into lyrical abstraction and, in a few cases, adopted monochromy, while in his final works he combined figurative and abstract depictions. Along with his painting he also was involved with mosaic, fresco, glass etching, engraving and drawing; he moreover painted icons and made copies of wall paintings and mosaics from the Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki which he exhibited in 1953. Furthermore, he designed furniture and objects of everyday use, as well as posters and book covers and published articles and studies on art.

He took his first lessons in painting and lithography from Othon Pervolarakis. He then studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Dimitrios Biskinis and Umvertos Argyros.

In 1958, having been held a political prisoner since 1945, he sent his works to the Youth Salon of the Zygos gallery where in 1961 his first solo exhibition was presented. This was followed by other solo and group exhibitions both inside and outside Greece where he received honorary distinctions. During the period 1961-1967 he taught graphic arts at the Vakalo School and in 1969 he founded the Ora Artistic and Cultural Center.

In his painting, done with oil, he makes unities consisting of machines, interiors, prisons and political prisoners, based on his personal experiences and done in the spirit of critical realism. At the same time, he cultivated water color extensively, depicting landscapes which suggest a poetic atmosphere. In the framework of his broader activity, he was involved with decoration, the graphic arts, lithography, advertising and book illustration and he also published articles dealing with art in the newspapers and magazines.

During the period 1952-1958 she studied painting at the studio of Kostas Iliadis, where she then taught as his assistant, broadening her artistic education with trips to the countries of Europe and America.

In 1960 she organized her first solo exhibition at Nees Morfes gallery; she had already begun to exhibit in 1957. These appearances were followed by solo, Panhellenies and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, among which were the Biennales of Alexandria in 1967 and Sao Paolo in 1989, as well as participation in the exhibitions of the group Processes-Systems, of which she was a founding member.

After her early works, produced in the context of abstract expressionism, she proceeded on to three-dimensional compositions made of plexiglass and introduced the concept of rhythm, mathematical logic and the use of the computer, with the assistance of which she gave form to abstract concepts. Also making use of material and technological means and, employing the Fibonacci system as the basis of her work, she created serial compositions, while in the final stage of her work, she returned to gestural, expressionistic forms of expression, at the same time organizing installations in space.

He studied painting at the School of Fine Arts (1948-1950) under Yannis Moralis and mathematics at the University of Athens. In 1965 he was elected lecturer at the School of Architecture of the National Technical University. During the period 1973-1974, on a grant from the Ford Foundation, he worked at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, investigating the relationships between art and mathematical conception. In 1981 he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject of, “Γεωμετρικοί μετασχηματισμοί και μορφή” (“Geometric Transformations and Form”), while in 1991 he became director and then, in 1995, professor at the Division of Architectural Language, Communication and Design of the Architecture Department of the National Technical University.

One of the founding members of the group Processes-Systems, he started exhibiting in 1957 and this now includes solo shows and participation in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, among which was the Europalia in Brussels in 1982.

Adopting expressionist models at the beginning of his creative career, he then went on to abstract compositions based on both complex and simple geometric shapes. At the same time, interested on a theoretical and practical level in the introduction of mathematical elements into art, he created in 1963 the first mobiles in Greece while later, broadening his research, he introduced computers into his work, publishing at the same time related articles and studies in various magazines.

He studied architecture at the National Technical University (1942-1948) and in 1942-1943 attended lessons at the Athens School of Fine Arts. From 1955 to 1956, on a scholarship from the French government, he did post-graduate work at the research center C.S.T.B. in Paris, investigating the materials and techniques of building. His artistic education was completed by trips to Greece and America (1970-1971) made possible by a grant from the Ford Foundation.

He started to exhibit in 1948 and presented his work in solo, Panhellenies and group exhibitions of painting and sculpture in Greece and abroad, such as the Alexandria Biennale of 1965 and the Brussels Europalia of 1982. In 1968 he was proposed as Greece’s representative to the Venice Biennale but in the end he refused to participate. In 1957 he held his first solo show in Athens and in 1990 a number of his paintings were presented at the National Gallery.

In the beginning he was a figurative painter, doing portraits, genre scenes, interiors, and allegorical and mythological subjects. Later he moved on to geometric abstraction and created compositions characterized by their special sensitivity to color combinations. His sculptural work was usually combined with architecture and includes relief compositions and groups made of concrete, marble and polyester and found in private dwellings, apartment buildings and public edifices in Greece and abroad. He also did architectural and town-planning studies and published a number of texts in magazines. In the context of his broader artistic activity, he was also involved with stage design, while in 1968 and 1970 participated in the International Week of Modern Music with a film and a multiart presentation. In 1980, at the behest of the Ministry of Culture, he composed and recorded a multiart play which combined dance, music, cinema and the written word.

In 1923 he settled with his family in Greece and from 1928 to 1936 he studied at the School of Fine Arts under Konstantinos Parthenis.
In 1936 he became a member of the group Free Artists, having already begun to exhibit the previous year. He presented his work in solo, group and international exhibitions, among which were the International Exhibition of Cairo in 1947, the Alexandria Biennale of 1963, and the International Engraving Exhibition of Leipzig the same year. In 1977 there was a retrospective of his work at the National Gallery.

During the German occupation he painted a series of compositions whose themes were hunger and the struggles of the people of Athens, while in 1944 he went up to the Eurytania mountains painting scenes from the life and armed resistance of the guerrillas, which were later transferred to full-sized paintings. After the war he became involved with engraving, indeed even inventing his own technique for the oxidation of zinc and copper.

Cultivating a type of expressionistic socialist realism, he depicted in the main the lives of workers, farmers, fishermen and mountain people. On a more limited scale, he was also involved with portraiture and landscape, particularly that of Rhodes, where he lived for many years and where he decorated with wall paintings the conference hall of the Chamber, as well as houses and various foundations.

Son of a florist, originally coming from Mani, Peloponnese, Michael Lekakis took drawing lessons while working at his father’s business. From the late 1920’s, he began working regularly in painting and sculpture. He attended open courses in history, history of art, literature, philosophy, music and anthropology at American universities and associated with American intellectuals and artists. He travelled to Mexico, the Yucatan, Europe and above all Greece, while maintaining his intimate ties with the New York Greek American community.

In 1941, he had his first solo exhibition at the Artists Gallery, New York. Then followed many solo shows, among them in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1973) and the National Gallery, Athens (1980). Retrospective exhibitions of his work were organised in 1968 at the Dayton Art Institute and in 1987 at the Kouros Gallery, New York. He also participated in major group events, including the Whitney Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Self-taught, but with wide-ranging interests, Michalis Lekakis was an artist who from an early age pursued his own creative course. He began with making realistic heads of his family but soon moved on to abstract sculpture. Working mainly on wood and taking advantage of the unpredictable nature of the material, he created works within the organic abstraction context. According to the specific elements they feature, his works have been distinguished in “columns”, linear and spherical forms, freely deployed in space or interlaced in various combinations, the outcome of merging biomorphs or geometric forms, evoking an effect of movement and growth. Their pedestals play a vital role in these works, as the artist considers them intimately related with the sculptures themselves and produces them in the same manner and material.

Besides sculpture, he also became involved with painting, drawing his subjects from mythology and tradition, and creating works of a symbolic character and a soft colour palette.