Painter Yiannis Migadis was born in Heraklion, Crete in 1926. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Parthenis and Argyros (1945 – 1951). He was granted a scholarship by the Athens University endowment and left for Paris, where he studied stage design and costume design at the École des Arts Décoratifs. He travelled a lot, mainly to the Middle East, and lived in Athens. He worked closely with Yannis Tsarouchis, whom he considered his teacher.

His work was presented in many solo and group exhibitions, in Greece and abroad. His first solo exhibitions were held in 1953 (Stratigopoulos art gallery, Athens and Scientists Club of Heraklion, Crete). Large retrospective exhibitions of his work were organized in 2003 at the Ermopoulia Festival in Syros and in 2008 at the Benaki Museum. He also worked as a stage designer and costume designer at the National Theatre, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, the Free Theatre (Ελεύθερο Θέατρο) and in Greek and foreign cinema. He also illustrated books, diaries, and magazines, and also wrote articles for literary and art magazines. He was a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and the International Theatre Centre.

His works can be found in the National Gallery of Athens, the Pieridis Gallery, the Vorres Museum and other public and private collections in Greece and abroad, in collections of banks and in ministries. In 1998 he was awarded by the Academy of Athens for his contribution to the arts, in 2003 he received the “Panos Aravantinos” award for his work as a costume designer and in 2007 he received the “Nikos Kazantzakis” award from the Municipality of Heraklion. Yiannis Migadis died in 2017 in Athens.