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.
Coming from a Venetian family, the student of Padovino (1588-1649), the painter drew his inspiration from Tiziano as well as from the colour skills of the great Venetian masters of the 16th century. A virtuoso and an exceptional imitator of Tiziano, Giorgione and Palma Vecchio, Della Vecchia was also inspired by Caravaggio, often indulging in a most violent chiaroscuro.
The son and the student of painter Johann Ultrich Loth, Johann Carl left for Rome after 1653. In 1656, he moved to Venice, where he remained until the end of his life. Along with Giovanni Battista Langetti (1635-1676) and Antonio Zanchi (1631-1722), they were called tenebrosi, on account of their style, which was a result of their influence from the work of Caravaggio, characterized by dark colours and a stark contrast between light and darkness. Loth was involved with church altar decoration, Old Testament scenes, as well as mythological and historical subjects. The main characteristic of his work is the supremacy of the naked figure; in the male one especially, there is an obvious effort to render the muscular anatomy of the figures, which becomes even more intense through the use of highlighted and dark surfaces. Thanks to his characteristic virtuosity as well as to the popularity of his work with the public, a real “industry of painting” was established in Venice; he also received numerous commissions from kings and ambassadors, as well as for decorative complexes for churches.
He studied graphic arts and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1982-1987) with Dimitris Mytaras.
He first exhibited in 1987, when he participated in the Mediterranean Biennale of Young Artists. Then followed solo shows and contributions to group events in Greece and other countries, including “Germinations” in Aachen (1991), “The Tree” at the Averoff Art Gallery in Metsovo (1993) and “Messengers from God” (Mesaggeri degli Dei) at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (1996).
Primarily involved with constructions, Pantelis Chandris focuses on the representation of concepts and in his works prevail juxtapositions of all kinds, dream-like and complex images of intense symbolism and allegorical content, using natural materials and plaster, paper, colours, metals and polyester.
He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1979 – 1984). He taught painting at the children’s section of the Art Workshop at Chalkida (1985 – 1990) and Demosthenes Kokkinidis’ workshop at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1987 – 1994). Since 1979, his work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions in Greece and other countries. In 1992, he was nominated for the UNESCO Prize and in 1994 received commendation for his work “The Settler” at the Alexandria Biennale.
An artist who transcends painting within the frame, Manoussakis creates visual complexes, installations and environments, in which the figuration is “conceptually” perceived and often rendered through the use of a coded symbolic vocabulary.
Son of the painter Jean Linard, who lived and worked in the region of Troyes, he seems to have received painting lessons in his family environment; there is no information regarding his subsequent education and his contacts with the Dutch School, in which “still life” was flourishing as an autonomous genre at the time. From 1625 until the end of his life, he lived in Paris, first at Ile de la Cite, home to many painters, and later in the quarter of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs. He was soon established as an artist, receiving commissions from the upper class, such as the Richelieu family, while in 1631 he became court painter of King Louis XIII.