Artist’s CV
Chryssa Vardea was born in Athens, in 1933 in the area of Zografou. Her family, although descended from the well-known family of Mani, the Mavromichalaia, was poor, while her father had died before she met him. He initially studied social welfare in Athens.
A Greek critic convinces her family to send her to Paris. In 1953 he went to Paris, where he studied at the Grand Sommier Academy for a year. In 1954 she left for America and continued her studies at the School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California for another year. From 1957, she settled in New York, where she created her workshop. There he will be influenced by Times Square and its lights.
This area will become a source of inspiration for her. In 1992 he returned to Athens for the first time after thirty-five years, setting up a workshop in Neo Kosmos, but then returned to America again. He passed away in Athens on December 23, 2013.
Projects and Exhibitions
Her works were inspired by the life of the big urban centers. Her first major work, The Cycladic Books (1957), was characterized by art critic Barbara Rose as a harbinger of minimalism. Her first solo exhibition was held in 1961 at the Betty Parsons Gallery and the same year at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
In several of her works, inspired by Times Square (1966) which she associates with the Byzantine Empire, she uses aluminum and neon lights. Her work The Gates of Times Square (at the Albright Knox Art Gallery), a composition of stainless steel, Plexiglas and neon lights, is her artistic peak and one of the most important American sculptures. In this work, which has the form of two large A’s, he uses neon lights. The use of letters as well as neon characterize, in general, her works. In 1967 he created the play Clytemnestra, which today is outside the Athens Concert Hall.
She had exhibited her works in many famous museums and galleries in the world such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center (1968), the Whitney (1972), the Museum of Modern Art in Montreal (1974) , the Museum of Modern Art in Paris (1979), the National Gallery in Athens, the Institutes of Contemporary Art in Boston and London and had participated in various exhibitions such as the São Paulo Biennale (1963,1969) and the Venice Biennale (1972). He had also met important figures of art who at that time existed in New York.
Mott Street (1983), influenced by Manhattan’s Chinatown, is located in the Evangelismos station of the Athens Metro. He had given her works to the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.
