Yannoulis Chalepas was born in 1851 in Pyrgos Tinos, the eldest son of the Chalepas family, which had one of the most important marble sculpture businesses. His father sent him to work in a commercial shop in Syros, but shortly afterwards he gave in to his son's desire to work in art and in 1869 the family moved to Athens, where Giannoulis enrolled at the Royal School of Arts, which he attends with prizes and praise until 1872 when he moves to Munich and begins his studies at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Arts, having secured a scholarship to study abroad from the Panhellenic Holy Foundation of Evangelistria of Tinos. Throughout his studies, he receives prizes and medals for his works. In the summer of 1875 he returned to Greece and opened his studio and began the first period of his artistic creation. In 1878 the first signs of his illness appeared and the following year he attempted suicide, abandoned his artistic activity and moved to Tinos with his mother until 1888, when his condition deteriorated and he was confined in the Frenokomeio of Corfu until 1892. Ten years later, the second period of his artistic creation began, this time in Tinos, with the same themes but in a different style. Το 1925 πραγματοποιείται έκθεση γλυπτών του στην Ακαδημία Αθηνών, η οποία αποσπά διθυραμβικά σχόλια, το 1927 του απονέμεται το Αριστείο των Γραμμάτων και των Τεχνών της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών και την επόμενη χρονιά οργανώνεται από τον Ν. Βέλμο έκθεση γλυτπών και σεδίων στο «Άσυλο της Τέχνης». In 1925 an exhibition of his sculptures was held at the Athens Academy, which received rave reviews, in 1927 he was awarded the Prize of Arts and Letters of the Academy of Athens and the following year N. Velmos organized an exhibition of sculptures and cedos at the "Asylum of Art". The period 1930-1938 is the third artistic period of Chalepas' creative work in Athens, which is distinguished by simplicity, immediacy of expression and persistence in subject matter. He died in September 1938 at the age of 87.