Born in Athens in 1944, he studied painting at the ASFA under Y. Moralis and stage design under V. Vassiliadis (1963-1968). In 1966 he presented his first solo exhibition (Keraia Gallery, Athens) and in 1969 he won the Parthenis Award for his painting. From 1972 to 1986 he lived in London and pursued his postgraduate studies in printmaking (1973-1975; St. Martins School of Art and Croydon College of Art).
His painting is anthropocentric, with elements of critical realism aimed at awakening the viewer’s conscience. Some phases in his work show some deliberate references to the visual elements of “Greekness”, with influences from Tsarouchis, Kontoglou or Theophilos. In more recent works he adopts a personal style with pronounced expressionistic elements in large-scale, composite works, and begins to combine painting with the theatre, music and literature, while he becomes active as a writer as well.
After 2000 he goes into filmmaking, producing both short and feature films. His
Road to the West (2003) won the 1st State Award for Best Documentary and the FIPRESCI Award. Also awarded was his film
Sweet Memory (2005).
He has designed the costumes for the film
Days of ΄36 of Theo Angelopoulos (1971) and the sets for P. Voulgaris’s
To proxenio tis Annas (1972) as well as for several theatrical productions.
He was a member of the “New Greek Realists“ (1969-1973, with Valavanidis, Dingas, Botsoglou and Psychopedis), a group which was active in the dictatorship with the aim of commenting on contemporary political and social events. In 1990 he founded “Omada Technis” with the aim of researching the relations among the arts (painting, theatre, music, photography, cinema...), and was a founding member of the “Europa 24” artists’ union (1991-1998). He served as art director of the Art Workshop of Egaleo (1997-2003). In 2005 he was elected professor at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Thessaloniki, where he taught until 2011.
He has presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad; his participations include the 1980 Biennale of Sao Paulo (1980), the 11th Biennale de Paris (1980), Europalia ’82 (Antwerp), "Peinture Grecque 1968-1988" (Brussels 1988), etc. In 2013 the Benaki Museum presented a retrospective of his oeuvre. His works can be found in public and private collections in Greece and abroad.