Semitekolo Grigoris (1935 - 2014)

He was born in Athens in 1935. First he studied at the studio of Panos Sarafianos and then at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Y. Moralis. He continued his studies at independent institutions in Germany, where he also presented his first solo exhibition (Munich, 1962).
From an early stage in his career, his artistic activities were not strictly confined within the boundaries of painting, but were expanded to contemporary music and other innovative forms of artistic expression. His acquaintance with the composer, Jani Christou, influenced largely his development and had quite an impact on his presence as an artist, especially after his impressive performance in Christou's works Epikiklos and Anaparastasis III-The Pianist. These shows were presented in Athens (Hellenic-American Union, 1969), and other greek and european cities, as well as in the U.S.A.
He developed a private painting language with symbolic images of objects or abstract motifs in dream-like compositions of evocative colours and hard-light, which help create a surreal environment.
Since the early 70's he started to organize live music happenings and, in 1974, he presented for the first time his characteristic white figures, mostly at life-size, his sexless, inexpressive dummies, which were included since, in many of his often satirical, ritualistic actions/performances. In 1985 he presented his performance Cosmic Dissecting Room, also presented at the 5th festival of Montvillers (1990) and the Athens Megaron (1992), whereas in 1993, it was made into a movie by Vassilis Vafeas.
He has been a founding member of the Visual Arts Centre (KET). He has also worked as a stage designer and has collaborated with other visual artists (i.e. performing in alternative, self-improvised 'soundtracks' to their artworks). His works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.