Tonia Nikolaidou – Dendrinou was born in Athens in 1927 and her family comes from Ithaca. She studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1946 – 1952) under K. Parthenis and Umv. Argyros and engraving under Jean Kefalinos.

Since 1979 she has held numerous solo exhibitions in Greece and Europe and since 1957 she has taken part in many group exhibitions abroad including several Engraving and Drawing Biennales and Triennales in many of which she received distinctions and awards, such as an award and a gold medal at the Alexandria Biennale (1980), the award of the committee at the Fredrikstad Biennale in Norway (1982), special award at the R.O.C. Biennale in Taipei (1983,  1985), gold medal at the Fredrikstad Biennale (1989), special award at the Impreza Engraving Biennale, Ukraine (1989) and has also received awards by F.I.C.F. (Women’s International Cultural Federation), Athens (1988 – 1993).

She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, of F.I.C.F. (Women’s International Cultural Federation), of the group “Printmaking Centre”, of the S.M.T.G Krakow, of the Greek Printmakers’ Association, and was also a member of SY.S.T. until its dissolution.