Stefanakis Yannis (1951)

Born at Gregoria of Herkleion, Crete in 1951 he studied typography and book art at the ASFA (1971-1975), and in 1984-1989 he studied painting, printmaking and religious icon painting under G. Papadakis, N. Kessanlis and Th. Exarchopoulos. From 1964 to 1989 he worked as typesetter and printer at the private printing shop he established with his brothers. In 1980 he published the poetry newspaper Epipedo together with the poet Michalis Katsaros. Since 1989 he has been publishing Neo Epipedo, a magazine for literature and visual art, and since 2003 the Technopaignion magazine.
His artistic activities span a broad range, from monotype and painting to constructions, installations, poetry and its illustration, art editions, exhibition organizing, etc. His subjects are equally varied: landscapes, human figures, animals, everyday scenes, bicycles as well as various wall-mounted compositions with added objects such as sheet metal, string, water pipes and so on. All these recur in many variations, attesting to the artist's need to try different approaches, conceptually as well as morphologically, while exploring their expressive potential. He narrates stories from memory and experience combined with elements of reality and daily life.
He has had over 30 solo exhibitions in Greek cities and in Brussels and has participated in hundreds of group shows in Greece and abroad (Luxembourg, France, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Algeria, China, Bulgaria, Slovenia, etc.). He co-organised the Hellenic Comics Festival at Parko Eleftherias (2004, 2012), has taken part in conventions on typography and visual communication (2002, 2004), organised seminars on printmaking, drawing, printmaking and painting and has illustrated art editions. He is a founding member of the "Technopaignion art group" and ECUME of Thessaloniki, a member of the Hellenic Chamber of Visual Arts (ΕΕΤΕ), the Association of Greek Printmakers, the Herakleion Visual Art Network and the Society of Greek Writers. His works can be found in museums, galleries, the Ministry of Culture and in private collections in Greece and abroad.