Our Artists
Kalliopi Kalaitzidou was born in 1990 in Thessaloniki and graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. From her teenage years, she was involved in crafts and visual arts, which now constitute her professional focus.
Self-taught in contemporary mosaic, she began presenting her work as Calliope Mosaics in 2012.
Since then, she has been creating works for private and public spaces while also passing on her knowledge of mosaic art through teaching and workshops.
Believing deeply that art, creativity, and dreams support and heal individuals and communities, she has organized and executed three community projects:
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2017: "The Magic Carpet" with refugees and immigrants from around the world, at the Municipal Theater of Mytilene.
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2019: "The Tree of Life in the Four Seasons" with hospitalized children, their parents, and hospital staff, at the Gennimatas Hospital School in Thessaloniki.
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2021: A project creating decorative mosaic artworks for an outdoor space with people from different European countries, at the Prosiliakos Kyklo estate in Messinian Mani.
Her art is characterized by vivid colors, emphasis on lines and shapes, archetypal and traditional patterns and forms, in an ongoing process of shaping a personal language aimed at communicating with the world through its most sincere part, her heart.
Lena Bornova was born in 1991 in Athens. In 2012, she graduated from the Graphic Design department of AKTO and was admitted to the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at the School of Fine Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, from which she graduated in 2017 with a focus on painting.
She has participated in group exhibitions:
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2017: “Physical and Next,” Athens
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2017: “8th Biennale of Art Students from Greek Art Schools,” Center for Contemporary Art Thessaloniki
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2016-17: “Inspiration: Russian Avant-Garde. Workshop of Young Artists at the KMST,” State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki
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2015: “In between,” Yeni Cami, Thessaloniki
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2015: “SUM ATHROISMA,” TABYA, Thessaloniki
In 2018, she returned to Kalamata and worked in secondary education. She engaged in art therapy with groups of preschool and elementary school children. Since 2020, she has been involved with the cultural association "Artistic Hangout." Today, she organizes art workshops for children, is a member of the Social Cooperative Enterprise “Burú Cooperativa,” and, through “Lébo,” experiments with various materials and techniques to paint her colorful worlds on all sorts of objects. The colors, textures, and abstract forms that characterize her works reflect a continuous dialectical relationship between the self and the surrounding world.
Despina Melianou (KouKouMavla), born in 1974, grew up and lives in Patmos. With her head in the clouds, barefoot, she gathers sunshine, paints, cuts, molds, sews, loves fairy tales, books, children, and nature! She is constantly transforming and being transformed, creating her own world.
Born in Thessaloniki and raised in Patmos, she has been an artistic soul since childhood. At 19, she began her studies in photography (Focus), attended seminars at the "Photographic Circle," and took workshops in puppetry, papier-mâché, and other fine arts. She was involved in amateur theater and fairy tale storytelling (which she has been studying since 2013, without interruption!).
She then spent two years in London (which she fell in love with!), where she took painting classes on silk, ceramics, and papier-mâché. These years in London profoundly shaped her aesthetic and defined her art, which she calls Happy Art! Returning to Patmos, she was determined and clear about where her (future!) four fairy daughters—Apollonia, Melissa, Alice, and Julia—would grow up. Together with her Italian husband, Andrea, she decided to open KOUKOUMAVLA (2003-2016), an alternative space in Skala Patmos for coffee, drinks, special cocktails, and events! There, visitors could find her creations (a range of clothes, accessories, bags, paintings, and many other masterpieces) and selected books.
In 2017, KouKouMavla moved to Chora (Patmos) and transformed into a space featuring her creations and books selected by her (with a special love for children's books). She created both spaces herself, painting them from floor to ceiling as if they were three-dimensional canvases you could step into!
“Koukoumavla! The Magic Store of Wonders… In the Patmian dictionary, ‘koukoumavla’ translates to ‘owl.’ But, in everyday language, it translates… roughly as ‘fairy tales,’ words of the air, actions with wings and huge ears… koukoumavles, that is!!! No matter how far back I go in time, I remember my grandmother, Despina, the Villager, calling me ‘Ah, little—little… koukoumavla…!!’ because I used to enchant her with my questions and answers… and when she got angry, I would run and shower her with kisses… and she, shaking her head, would say again: ‘Ah! Little koukoumavla!!!’ So, everything starts from childhood!… and koukoumavla grew up (I mean, Despina Melianou)… until all the airy and logical words with wings, the photographs, the fairy tales, the love, and the dreams… began to become… reality, such that you can touch it, caress it, speak to it! Woven into lace…, from the hands of – the other grandmother – Despina too!!!… I identified so much with the meaning behind the big eyes of an owl – koukoumavla, that I grew wings!.. and since then I fly! I FLY, through my images and dreams! And I shake my wings!!!… the feathers that fall become magical objects! Colorful! And each of them carries a story… to whisper to you!!!”
Exhibitions:
1996, Black-and-White Photography Exhibition (solo), Scala, Patmos
2010, "Pae", group painting exhibition
2010, "The Mills", group painting exhibition
2012, "Fairy Tales Are Not True, But At Least They Are Not Lies!", solo exhibition of paintings and papier-mâché sculptures at the old Elementary School of Chora, Patmos
2020, A series of murals featuring fairy tale characters, created at the Kindergarten of Scala, Patmos
2003 … to the present! Storytelling of Folktales
Illustration: MEMORY OF A GOLDFISH, Angeliki Lalu in the text, Despina Melianou in the illustrations, Fidisi Editions, WINTER 2022
Sources: Biblionet.gr, Jenny.gr, yellow.place, nitro.gr