Giaros’ courtyard

George Lappas was born in Cairo in 1950. In 1958 he and his family moved to Athens, as they were forced to leave Egypt due to the persecution of the Nasser regime. He studied Clinical Psychology at Reed College in Portland, United States (1969-1973) and volunteered in psychiatric hospitals. In 1974, on a Watson Foundation fellowship, he researched the sculpture of Indian temples. In 1975 he attended architecture courses at the Architectural School of Architecture in London and then studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts with Yannis Pappas and Giorgos Nikolaidis (1976-1981). He continued his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris on a scholarship from the French state (1984-1985). He travelled and worked in many countries (Europe, Asia, America). In 1991 he received a scholarship from the Cartier Foundation in Paris. In 1992 he was elected Professor at the Chair of Sculpture at the Higher School of Fine Arts, where he taught until his death in 2016. His work includes sculptures, structures and installations, usually large-scale, which explore the relationship of sculpture with space and communication with the viewer. He has held a series of solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad (Glasgow, Florence, Brussels, Munich, New York, etc.). He took part in numerous group exhibitions: in 1982 he took part in the Biennale des Jeunes (Paris) and the Europalia in Belgium. He also participated in the Sao Paulo Biennale (1987) and in Aperto at the Venice Biennale (1988). He represented Greece at the Venice Biennale (1990, together with Yannis Bouteas) and at the 1st Gwangju Biennale (Korea, 1995).