He was born in Athens in 1952. He studied music and music history at the Athens Conservatory. He also studied literature and aesthetics in France at the University of Aix-en-Provence, art sociology and semantics at EHESS in Paris (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences), and continued with postgraduate studies in art history and theory, philosophy and aesthetics (1980-1985). Among his professors were internationally notable figures, such as Jean Cassou, Gaëtan Picon, Louis Marin, Roland Barthes and Hubert Damisch.
During the 1980s and 1990s, he taught at various European institutions, such as the Geneva University of Art and Design (Switzerland), the Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporain (Grenoble, France), the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and the Bern University of the Arts (Switzerland). He was elected Professor Emeritus at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and also became Director of the Vienna Institute of Contemporary Art. Moreover, since 2002, he taught art history and museology at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the Aegean University in Mytilene, Greece.
He has served as: Director of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Culture and Sculpture Park, Domaine de Kerguéhennec in Brittany, France (1992-1999); Co-director of the Kassel Documenta IX (1992); Commissar of the French Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999); Conventioneer of the international cultural policy committee of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Advisor of the Commission for the Recognition of Fine Arts Academic Qualifications of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Education; Inspector General for the Fine Arts of the French Ministry of Culture; Advisor and conventioneer of the National Collection of Modern Art in France; Member of the Exhibition Committee of the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
He has curated and organized numerous exhibitions in Museums and Art Centers in Greece, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Montenegro and the U.S.A. Among others, he was coordinator of the “Greek Month” at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1975-1976).
As an art critic, he has worked with art periodicals, has published books, exhibition catalogues, studies and a considerable number of monographs, both for contemporary and historical artists. He has given lectures and has participated, managed and organized conventions for many European and American museums, institutions and universities. Since 2006, he is the art director of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki.