Kostas Paniaras was born in 1934 in Kiato, Corinthia, and died in 2014 in Athens.

In 1956 he enrolled at the School of Fine Arts, Athens, to study painting in the workshop of Yiannis Moralis. In the same year, he decided to continue his studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts to study engraving, painting with Andre Lhote, mosaic and fresco with Gino Severini. While living in Paris, he had prolonged stays in the USA and Persia. He returned permanently to Greece in 1975.

From the late fifties, Paniaras’ work evolved to non-figurative and abstract language. In his ‘Day and Night’ (1979-1987) series he used two basic colours, red and blue, as well as two neutral, white and black, and finally emphasized their basic contracts with mythical, dramatic interventions of gold and silver.

He experimented with new materials, such as pleated PVC, to break the flatness of the non-figurative work. The overlapping of the fabric created surfaces that are characterized by rich rhythm and a delicate colour balance. The pleated element, the thickness and texture of the material, illuminated accordingly creates different tones and gives the two-dimensional surface a distinctive character. 

In ‘Seascapes’ (1988-1995) he returned to pure painting values. Through the same austerity of colour and large-rough brushstrokes, his intense gesture writing created landscapes of his inner world. The ‘Seascapes’ evolved and culminated in the late nineties to the series ‘Nights’.

Paniaras held many solo exhibitions internationally such as the Iolas Gallery, New York (1961, 1965, 1971, 1974, 1978, 1983); Iolas Gallery, Geneva (1964); Iolas Gallery, Paris (1969, 1973); Warren Gallery, Los Angeles and Meyer Gallery, San Francisco (1971); B & E Goulandris Museum of Modern Art, Andros (1986).

Additionally, he participated in several prestigious international group exhibitions such as the Salon du Nu, Paris (1957); Ecole de Paris, Paris (1960); Paris Biennale (1961); L’Oeil de Boeuf, Paris (1962); the Art on America Show, New York (1962, 1966); the Tokyo Biennale (1964) and the Trummel Crow the Medows Museum, Dallas, Texas (1990).

His work is present in many public and private collections, notably that of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Gallery of Greece, the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and the B & E Goulandris Museum of Modern Art.