Nayia Kaplanidou: "The Image of the Invisible"

A retrospective iconography exhibition at ACT's Bissell Library

 

Under the title "The Image of the Invisible," Nayia Kaplanidou exhibited 35 of her icons. These icons are indicative of how she has evolved as an iconographer over a period of twenty-nine years. Nayia employs the authentic Byzantine technique using only natural materials which she prepares herself. Her traditional icons are painted on wood with a gold background. She has also painted icons on driftwood allowing her a somewhat more liberal rendition of her iconography.

 

Nayia, a 1980 Anatolia College graduate, studied painting and art preservation at the School of Fine Arts in Florence (1981-1985). Since furthering her studies in Byzantine iconography in Iraklion, Crete in 1987, she has concentrated on this art form. She lived and worked in Florence  from 1981 to 2000. Nayia has held 6 solo exhibitions and has participated in a number of group exhibitions in Italy and Greece. In 1996 she established in Florence the Scuola Iconografica Greco-Byzantina where she taught the art of icon painting. Her icons can be found in Catholic and Orthodox churches in Italy and Greece, as well as in private collections. Nayia also worked on the restoration of frescoes dating from the Middle Ages in private edifices in Florence. Today she lives and works in Thessaloniki.