Yannis Mihailidis was born on the island of Skiathos in 1940. He was a self-taught artist who studied Byzantine art, naïve art and abstract painting. He lived and worked between Athens and Pelion.

His work is in a constant dialogue between contemporary Greek painting and the international post-war trends of abstraction. He mainly painted on paper, even if in some cases, at the final stages he laid the paper on canvas.

His love of paper was evident throughout his life. Whether he was painting on it, creasing or tearing it, Mihailidis has built a personal iconography that is unique.

In the 1980’s he began to work in two phases. Firstly, he covered his surfaces with acrylic colour and paper, then returned to the work to remove and tear off layers to reveal new forms and arrive at the final product. The torn paper recorded the gesture of the artist and added to the expressive impact of the work. Additionally, he achieved an impression of wear, which compares to the natural life cycle of things.

In 2015 a major retrospective exhibition of the artist was organised by the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, with works between 1972 and 2012.

His work can be found in the National Gallery of Greece, the Greek Parliament, the Municipal Gallery of Rhodes, the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Municipal Gallery of Volos, the Teloglion Foundation of Art, the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, the J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, the Piraeus Bank Cultural Foundation and many other public and private collections.