O.K.

Cleopatra Dinga was born in 1946 in Athens. She studied painting and set design at the A.S.K.T. with a scholarship from the I.K.Y. and her teachers were G. Moralis, N. Nikolaou and V. Nikolaos and N. Vassiliadis. With a scholarship from the Academy of Athens she continued her studies in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs (1970-1974). In Paris she worked as assistant to the set designer Hubert Monloup in many theatrical productions. Her work initially reveals influences from pop art and gradually leads to a kind of critical realism with several autobiographical elements. Subsequently, her themes take on a more intensely anthropocentric and existential character, always maintaining her critical disposition. The same attitude prevails in her more recent works, through which she attempts to comment on the impact of the modern way of life in shaping today's reality. Alongside her visual work, she has also developed a great deal of activity in stage design, having worked as a set designer, in collaboration with state, independent and regional theatres, as well as in film and television productions. She was a founding and active member of many artistic groups, such as K.E.T., the New Greek Realists and the Group for Communication and Education in Art. She pioneered the creation of the Network of Art Workshops of the Ministry of Culture (1997-1999), while she founded and directed the Municipal Art Workshops of Kalamata (1985-1992) and Patras (2000-2012), developing important work in the field of education. She has published two literary books (1992 and 2013). She has presented her work in six solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition of her work was presented in Athens at the M.I.E.T.