She was born in Athens in 1939. She studied law at the University of Athens and began her career as a journalist for the magazines Art Review and Democratic Change, prior to the 1967 military coup. She studied art history in Paris (École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1967-69) under professors Pierre Francastel and Jean Cassou. She also attended the Semiotics seminars of Roland Barthes and A. J. Greimas, while researching the topic, A Sociological approach to Greek art 1960 -1970.
She was in charge of the art section for the newspaper Kathimerini (1974-81) and an art critic for the newspaper Eleftherotypia (1981-86). In 1984 she was appointed art director and hostess of the television series Zontano Mouseio (Living Museum) and the weekly radio show Se Deftero Prosopo (In the second person).
Apart from her art critique essays and her radio and TV shows, she presented art related topics by giving lectures in various cultural centres, she participated in conferences, she was editor in many art publications and organized thematic exhibitions of contemporary greek art in museums and galleries in Greece and abroad.
She was a member of the Athens Daily Newspapers Publishers Association (ESIEA) and of AICA International, the General Secretary of AICA Hellas, a board member of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi and a member of the Committee on Cultural Affairs of the City of Athens.
A tribute album was released in 2006, 20 years after her premature death (Athens, 1986), entitled Through eyes that can see: Beatrice Spiliadis’ critical texts on art by Gema publications, Lina Papaioannou - Stamatis Gikas (eds).