Born in Athens in 1957, Nikos Angelidis painted his first picture when he was five years old, “I had watched fire engines in a street parade in Athens and then ran home and painted a picture of the scene.”

For most children, that visually exciting event would instil a wish to become a fireman, but for Nikos it was the catalyst that made him want to be an artist.

That inner need to express himself visually was resolved at Athens School of Fine art. There he was taught and inspired by Pannayiotis Tetsis, one of the finest figurative painters in Greece. He was also introduced to the ideas and techniques of fresco and icon painting, reflected in much of his work today.
Angelidis still lives and works in Athens, depicting images from child-hood memories and stories, blending them with adult perceptions of narratives from poetry, myths, symbols and legends. “I shape the blend, as one does with a large piece of dough, breaking it into small parts – each with its own life, its own context to communicate.”
The blend is transformed on his canvases, merging with elements from personal experiences and dreams, creating filmic flashback images. A recurring theme is the walled garden, an enclosed paradise garden full of wonderful trees, fruits and flowers described by writers of ancient Greece, Byzantium and Persia.
Not for nothing does he describe himself as “a director of images” using them as a vocabulary to share with his audience as they travel through time and space with him on a voyage of discovery.