Davou Bia (1932 - 1996)

She was born in 1932 in Athens. She studied painting at Costas Iliadis' atelier (1952-58), where she also worked for a while, as his assistant. Her many travels around the globe helped shape her artistic identity.
Her first solo exhibition was presented in Athens (Nees Morfes gallery, 1960). Over the next years, her painting shifted from representation to abstraction, retaining at the same time its original features; its expressionistic style and its constant focus on the carefully structured graphic elements. A decisive turn in her career was made in the late '60s, when she gradually abandoned the canvas for three-dimensional constructions and environments.
In the mid 70's she was preoccupied with communication in the broader sense of the word, and familiarized herself with the language of mathematics and computer science, following a trend, hardly widespread in Greece at the time. She creates her compositions (Serial Structures) based on the binary system and the Fibonacci sequence. Her themes are becoming increasingly complex, but the rational-conceptual elements never overshadow the deeper lyrical sensibility that features her total oeuvre. Since the early 80's the poetic dimension of her oeuvre is enhanced by references to the Odyssey and ancient legends (Sails, Pillars, Argonauts, et al). Her multilevel spiritual quests are always combined with aesthetically complete forms, regardless of the technical media she employs.
She was a member of the art group Processes-Systems, founded by Emmanuel Mavromatis. She presented 12 solo exhibitions in Greece, mostly in collaboration with Desmos art gallery. She participated in 6 Pan-Hellenics (1957-1987) and in many other group exhibitions and international art fairs, such as the Paris Biennale for Young Artists (1961), the Biennale of Alexandria (1967), Europalia (Brussels, 1982), the Biennale of Sao Paulo (1987), etc.
She died in 1996 in Athens. Her last solo exhibition was presented in Athens shortly after her death (House of Cyprus, 1996). The National Museum of Contemporary Art organized a major retrospective exhibition of her work in Athens and published her all-inclusive monograph in 2008.