Akrithakis was born in Athens, 1939.

As a young man he mixed in bohemian, intellectual and artistic circles, among which he met poet and philosopher, Giorgos Makris and writer, Kostas Tachtsis, who both became greatly influential for him.

In 1958, he travelled to Paris on motorbike, where, like other artists, he lived an intense, disorderly life of post-war existentialism. He also became a close friend of painter Thanos Tsingos, and he began painting on a regular basis.

He returned to Greece in 1960 and exhibited early works in Veltsos gallery, Thessaloniki, in 1963. Shortly afterwards, in 1965, he presented his first major solo exhibition at The Athens French Institute.

He designed rock music album covers and stage sets for experimental productions. His tsiki-tsiki: a dense, black and white, lacelike, labyrinthine drawing technique became characteristic of his work during this time.

In 1968 he went to Berlin funded by a DAAD scholarship.

From 1970 onwards he collaborated with Alexander Iolas and travelled back and forth between Germany and Greece.

He was successfully involved in both the Greek and international art scene.

His provocative and even extreme lifestyle at times became integrated in his artistic identity. His work is continuously enriched with a multitude of narrative, poetic and symbolic motifs in lively spot colours (i.e. birds, boats, hearts, airplanes, arrows and his emblematic suitcase), as well as collages or mixed media and wooden constructions.

He returned to Greece in 1984. By then he was internationally well established, but in poor health.

Retrospectives were organised in 1997 at The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki and The National Gallery, Athens and in 2003 at Neue National Galerie, Berlin.

His works are found in many public and private collections in Greece and abroad, notably: The National Gallery, Athens, The Athens Municipal Gallery, The Rhodes Municipal Gallery and so on