Michalea Frosso (1936 - 2001)

Born in Larissa in 1936, she took her first lessons in painting and drawing by G. Bouzianis (1953) before going to Geneva to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under M. Weber and H. Koening (1954-1958).
Her early works are dominated by heavily schematic forms, with influences from archaic sculpture and the Cycladic figurines, but she soon made a decisive turn towards abstraction. In her first solo exhibition (Kouros Gallery, Athens 1958) she presented large paintings with expressionist elements, ink drawings and two sculptures. In the 1960s she creates solid, rigorously structured forms using mainly limestone, and later she adopts wood; the series Dialogues Α and Β, (Astor Gallery, 1970 and Zoumboulaki Gallery, 1975, resp.) and Milestones (1980) comprise large wooden sculptures dominated by vertical and horizontal layouts on simple and harmonious compositions.
In subsequent years her sculpture focuses on more dynamic forms with metal as her main material, and she emphasises the relationship of the geometric form with space (Movement in space and time, Zoumboulaki Gallery 1985). In the Trees and Birds series (Zoumboulaki Gallery, 1994) she employs sheets of coloured steel extending in different directions to give a feeling of motion reminiscent of the polymorphy of nature. In her last show (Passages-Openings, Zoumboulaki 1998) she presented rigorous geometric compositions based on diagonal lines on rectangular metal surfaces.
In addition to her artistic work she pursued educational and cultural activities. Starting in 1977 she delivered a series of lectures on “Contemporary Greek Sculpture” in various American cities, and in 1978-1980 she taught at the Deere College in Athens. She was a founding member of the Group for Communication & Education in Art (1976) and sat at the art committee of the National Gallery (1991-1995).
She presented her work in 10 solo exhibitions in Greece and participated in many group shows in Greece and abroad. Her works can be found in the National Gallery and Glyptotheque, in public and private collections and in public spaces in Greece.