Konstantinos Nikolaidis
Iconographer · Athens
Iconography is an art of the surface, but the depth of its content goes far beyond it. Uniting artistic skill with the tradition of the Byzantine icon, the iconographer brings his own manner to the icons and the wall paintings. In the faces of the saints he expresses stillness, seeking to convey spiritual balance and the path towards God.
Biography
Konstantinos Nikolaidis was born in 1966 in Chimkent, Kazakhstan. He began studying painting at the age of eleven and continued at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow, where he studied from 1981 to 1985.
Alongside his architectural studies, from 1988 he worked in a workshop of iconography, painting and decoration. From 1990 to 1994 he studied iconography while continuing to work in the workshop — the combination of school and practice that has shaped his working method ever since.
He lives and works in Ano Ilioupoli, Athens, where his workshop is located. Since 1993 he has painted dozens of churches and chapels in Attica, Akrata, Cephalonia and elsewhere. Some of these commissions have continued in the same church for more than twenty-five years.
He has been a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece since 2008. In 2015 he attended an enamel seminar in Moscow, and in 2016 studied poliment gilding in Athens.
Education
- 1977–1981Studies in painting
- 1981–1985Academy of Fine Arts, Moscow
- 1988–1992Institute of Construction — Architecture
- 1988–1992Workshop of iconography & decoration
- 1990–1994School of Iconography
- 2008Member, Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece
- 2015Enamel seminar, Moscow
- 2016Poliment gilding, Athens
Exhibitions
- 1994Group exhibition of painting and iconography, Municipal Theatre of Nea Smyrni
Skills & techniques
- Iconography: wall paintings and portable icons in the Byzantine manner — Cretan school, Russian school, Renaissance
- Conservation: icons, iconostases, wall paintings, easel paintings
- Painting: oil, watercolour, tempera, pencil, pastel, charcoal
- Decorative arts: mosaic, enamel, poliment gilding, woodcarving, engraving, stained glass, fresco
- Architecture: interior and exterior