Nikolaidi(Nikolaidou) Tonia (1927 - 2011)

Born in Athens in 1927, she studied painting and printmaking at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1946-1952) under Constantinos Parthenis, Umvertos Argyros and Yannis Kefallinos.
She presented her first solo exhibition at the Synchroni Charaktiki Gallery in 1979. Focusing on printmaking, she practised mainly copperplate and linoleum but remained open to experimentation: without limiting herself to traditional techniques, gradually she integrated into her works photography, silkscreen and relief elements (of wood, stone, glass, etc.). The colour and texture of paper plays a key role in her compositions, which are characterized by simplicity, clarity and sensibility.
Her family roots from Ithaca and her frequent visits to the island are reflected in her art, where the Ionian natural environment recurs regularly. Her subjects include seascapes, sandy beaches, human figures, trees, birds, paper boats, etc. Her works are organised in structured thematic units (Water images; Requiem for a tree; Sand; Sea; Light; Others like us are coming, but they won’t be us; etc.) that make up visual narratives.
In addition to printmaking she published texts on art and illustrated books.
She presented her work in 18 solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad (Athens, Thessaloniki, Hydra, Paris, Ghent, etc.), and in numerous group and international shows. She participated in Panhellenic Exhibitions (1960, 1965, 1986) and in over eighty Biennials of Printmaking and Drawing (Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Britain, Brazil, America, Italy, etc.). She was awarded a gold medal at the Alexandria Biennale (1980) and the Printmaking Biennales of Fredrikstad (1989) and Taipei (1983). In 1999 she was awarded by the Academy of Athens. A retrospective of her oeuvre, accompanied by a monograph, was held at the National Bank Cultural Foundation (MIET) in 2010-2011; the exhibition was also shown in Thessaloniki.
Her works can be found in the National Gallery, the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Averoff Gallery, the municipal galleries of Athens, Mytilene, Rhodes and Herakleion, the Florina Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, the Ministry of Culture, the collections of Alpha Bank, National Bank, the Printmaking Museums of Sophia, Lodz (Poland), Fredrikstad (Norway), etc.