Eleftherios Venizelos
He was born in Patras in 1951. He served in the Hellenic Army Academy, from where he graduated as a Second Lieutenant of (Engineers Arm, Class of 1975), the School of Corps of Engineers of the Hellenic Army (1980-1982), the Hellenic Supreme War College and the Hellenic National Defence College. He obtained a master’s degree from the National Defense University (USA). He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2006-2011) at the 1st Painting Workshop under Zacharias Arvanitis, Angelos Antonopoulos, Dimitrios Koukos and Magda Siamkouri. He served in Naples, Cyprus and Sarajevo. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant General in 2004. He has held two solo exhibitions (Homerion Cultural Centre of Chios, 1987 and Folklore Museum of Kozani, 1994) and has participated in several group exhibitions. In 2012 he received an award (commendation) for his participation in the art contest “First Balkan Wars” for 2006-2011 graduates of the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 2006, he received an award by the Parnassos Literary Society for his participation in the Pan-Hellenic Visual Arts Exhibition. He lives and works in Athens.
Married and mother of two. She has been working on icon painting and portraiture for the past few years. During her first visit to Sinai, she saw and learned about the encaustic icon painting technique. Enchanted by this technique, she decided to work on Fayum encaustic art portraits.
Vassilis Gratsias was born in Athens in 1946 and his family originated from Filoti, Naxos. Since 1983 he has been living in Heraklion, Crete. He studied drawing under P. Tetsis, graphic design under D. Gounaridis and art history under E. Vakalo, at the Vakalo Art and Design School. Until 1980 he worked as graphic designer. He became an avid painter following a two-year stay (1980-1982) near the painter and sculptor Lydia Sarri. In 1987 he held his first solo exhibition and his works were deeply appreciated by Thomas Fanourakis, Giorgos Thomas Georgiadis and Aristides Vlassis. Since then, he has held thirteen solo exhibitions and has also participated in several many group exhibitions. In the same year, he run a painting workshop for adults at the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation Cultural Centre; in 1999, he was honoured by the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation for his cultural activity. Starting on 2003, he taught painting for 4 years at the Archanes Friends of Art Association. In 2006, he created the “Art Workshop”, where he taught until 2012. In 2019, he created the multi-panelled mosaic “Peace” on the pier at the port of Heraklion as a present to the city that has embraced him. Several of his works are exhibited in the Heraklion Museum of Visual Arts, the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation, the Municipalities of Agios Nikolaos, Chersonissos, Drymalia (island of Naxos), Vamos, as well as in private collections in Greece and abroad. He is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and a founding member of the Heraklion Visual Artists Network. A. Vlassis, N. Psyllakis, D. Xiritakis, L. Sarri, G. D. Michelakis, P. Ch. Karampelas and K. Fanourakis have written texts on his work. From 1962 to 1996 he worked at the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization.
Born in 1988, Loula Metaxa resides in Heraklion, Crete. She studied Psychology (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and Business Administration (American College of Thessaloniki) before pursuing postgraduate studies in Human Resources Management (Athens University of Economics and Business). She holds the position of Human Resources Director at Metaxa Hospitality Group. She recalls herself painting as a young girl. Meanwhile, all her academic, professional, artistic decisions and tendencies in her life have always revolved around the allure of the observation and analysis of the human “soul”, which ultimately resulted in expressing herself through painting. Moreover, she sees painting as a tool for introspection and a means of recording her thoughts and psychological states. The exhibition “Thrivers” is her first journey into painting and reflects her search for ways in which she can best capture all those things that cannot be expressed in words, yet they exist.