The painter and printmaker Rena Tzolakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1930, and since 1960, she lives and works in Paris.
Inspired by her grandfather, Christoforos Anerrapsis—who had studied painting in Bucharest at the end of the 19th century—she studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Giannis Moralis for painting and Giannis Kefallinos for printmaking and book arts. With the support of a three-year scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY), she continued her studies in lithography at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Pierre Eugène Clairin, whose assistant she soon became. Concurrently, she studied book arts at the École Estienne in Paris (1960–1963).
She illustrated books for French publishing houses using lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts. She also taught various painting techniques at the Catholic Institute of Paris to teachers in special education schools.
She has held more than twenty solo exhibitions (Paris, London, Athens, Aix-en-Provence, Auxerre, Thessaloniki, Piraeus, Chania, Hydra) and has participated in numerous international exhibitions (Biennale of Young Artists in Paris 1963, Venice Biennale 1970, Kraków Biennale 1970, Blandford Biennale 1972, 2nd London International Contemporary Art Fair, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, Salon des Comparaisons in Paris, and others).
In 1975, she was honored by the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris with the Florence Gould Prize for her work in lithography.
She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and the Maison des Artistes.
Her works can be found in the National Library of France (Bibliothèque Nationale) in Paris, the Athens Art Gallery, the Municipal Library of Auxerre, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Bank of Greece, as well as in private collections in France, Greece, Great Britain, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Israel, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.