Amalia Vamvakou 

​​ΑΜΑΛΙΑ ΒΑΜΒΑΚΟΥ ​(1925-2014)

Amalia Vamvakou with Ion Frantzeskakis at Galerie Zygos, 2002.

Amalia Vamvakou obtained her Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., in 1957. In 1979 she graduated in Stage Design from the University of Augsburg, Germany.  She lived and worked in Athens.

Solo shows
1958, Galerie Techni, Athens; 1958 Galerie Sarla, Athens; 1960 Galerie Zygos, Athens; 1969, Galerie Ora, Athens; 1970, Galerie P.R., Athens; 1970, Galerie ZM, Thessaloniki; 1972, Galerie Moufe, Paris; 1973, Galerie Ora, Athens; 1978, Galerie Zygos, Athens; 1981 at her studio, Athens; 1983 Galerie Zygos, Athens.

Select Group shows
1960, Panhellenic Art Exhibition, Zappeion Hall, Athens; 1964, WIAC Gallery, London; 1966 Newburgh Gallery, London; 1969 Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy; 1972 Yugoslavia; 1972, Vichy Cultural Center, France; 1975 Barcelona Biennal; ​1979, 1980, 1981, Greek Sculptors Association open-air exhibitions; 1982, Galerie Syllogi; 1983, Galerie Stavrakakis, Herakleion, Crete; 1983, Galerie Zygos, Athens; 1984, ​Greek Sculptors Association, Moscow

Distinctions
1956, 2nd Prize, Caroline Risque Janis Award, St. Louis Art School; 1956, Hazel Goetsch Award, Womens' Association of Missouri; 1955, 1st and 2nd Prizes, International Sculpture Exhibition at Chautauqua, New York; 1969, Gold Medal, Sculpture Exhibition, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy

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Amalia Vamvakou "Autumn" bronze, 1984

The artworks of Vamvakou demonstrate a certain sensitivity,
which responds to the abilities that sculpture gives
and show a modesty and taste which stems from being aware of the limitations,
but also the love for sculpture.

​Eleni Vakalo
art critic, "TA NEA" newspaper, 23/12/1960

Amalia Vamvakou "Spring", bronze, 1984.

Amalia Vamvakou has for years been producing honest sculpture whose anthropocentric nucleus has been developing organically and is being steadily enriched by the dynamic yet tender dimension of color and the optical perspective of a Renaissance vision. The combination of wood and metal in some of her works -carved wood for the bass and copper for the fully-sculptured shapes which stand on them- gives her sculptures the warmth of wood and the monumentality of bronze. Her work gives an impression of light and happiness. It has the romanticism of a recollection of youth; of a journey through history; of a secret unacknowledged desire which is translated into a visual code. Some of her bronze heads and two or three of her compositions of fruit are tinted after the manner of ancient bronzes. This gives them additional qualities which are at once sculptural and painterly. Another feature of her sculptures is that they look as if they are intended to tease: they reveal a certain amount , but at the same time they seem to be hiding something, hinting at something. In her quest for its hidden structure, Amalia Vamvakou treats every work of sculpture as a living organism which, because of its mass, needs logic in order to exist. Even when she is working on abstract shapes, what she is trying to do is to is to create from them a recognizable form. In the last analysis, her work is serious because it has humor, because it is not pretentious, and because it combines naive, childlike conception with skilful sculptural execution.
Manos S. Stefanidis, "Trends and Achievements of Contemporary Greek Sculpture", Zygos Annual Edition on the Hellenic Fine Arts, Vol. IV, 1985

Amalia Vamvakou, "Reclining Woman," Zygos Magazine, #57, 1983

Amalia Vamvakou "The Gardenia"

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