The painter Yannis Tsamis was born in Thessaloniki in 1920. He was the brother of the collector Dimitrios Tsamis.
He took his first painting lessons under Polykleitos Regos. Later, he moved to Paris and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under M. Brianchon, as well as in the studio of the prominent Cubist painter Fernand Léger. Alongside painting, he experimented with printmaking and sculpture. Although his work spans many thematic categories, he appears to have a particular preference for portraiture and still lifes.
In his portraits, he employs a realistic language with direct references to his teacher and friend, Polykleitos Regos, while influences from early 20th-century modernist movements are also evident. In his female nudes specifically, he follows the principles of Matisse and the Fauves, characterized primarily by anti-realistic colors and distortions. In contrast, his approach to still lifes and landscapes is more abstract.
His work has been presented in solo exhibitions in Nice (1951) and Paris (1953–1989), as well as in group exhibitions such as the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants (1953–1989), the exhibition ‘Peintres et Sculpteurs Grecs de Paris’ at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris (1962), and in Panhellenic Art Exhibitions from 1967 to 1975.