Biographies
Moustakas Vangelis
Evangelos Moustakas was born in 1930 in Piraeus. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts in the workshop of Michalis Tombros (1950 – 1953) and, after being granted a scholarship by the State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.), he continued his studies at the Academia delle Belle Arti of Florence in engraving and decoration while attending the copper casting workshop at the Artistic Foundry of Bruno Bearzi. He has presented his work in solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including his first major retrospective exhibition at the Pieridis Gallery (1993), and has taken part in group exhibitions and international events such as the World Youth Festival in Moscow (1957), the exhibition Modern Greek Art in Sofia (1960), the Zagreb Biennale (1964), the Alexandria Biennale (1968), the Sao Paulo Biennale (1969), the Small Sculpture Biennale in Budapest (1973), the tribute Greek Art Today in London (1978), the exhibition L’eau et l’Europe in France (1990), the exhibition La sculpture grecque contemporaine in Paris (1991), etc.
He has collaborated in important project with, among others, the architect Walter Gropius on the decorative reliefs of the University of Baghdad. Vangelis Moustakas has also created monuments in public places including the Monument of Alexander the Great (Thessaloniki), the Monument of National Resistance (Thessaloniki), the Icarus Monument of Fallen Aviators (Tatoi, Tanagra and Karaiskaki Square), the Monument of the Liberation Struggle of the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters – EOKA (Cyprus), the Monument “Kyriakos Matsis” (Nicosia) etc.
He has received several accolades and awards in competitions and international events (1st prize “Gold Medal” at the Alexandria Biennale in 1968, 1st Prize for the Monument “Alexander the Great” in Thessaloniki, 1st Prize in the competition for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moschato, 1st Prize in a competition for the Monument “Eftychia Kalyva”, 1st Prize for “Young Sculptors” in an exhibition held at the Hellenic American Union, 1st Prize in the competition “Captain Michalis Korakas” in Crete, etc. ). He is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.