The painter Aristotelis Vasilikiotis was born in Eupatoria, Crimea, in 1902 and passed away in Athens in 1972. He was the descendant of wealthy merchants.
Due to the October Revolution, he left Russia with his family and settled in Athens in 1920. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1920–1922) without completing his degree; during this time, he met the painters Polykleitos Regos and Spyros Vassiliou.
From 1923 to 1927, he resided in Paris, where he attended painting classes at Lucien Simon’s studio and the École des Beaux-Arts on a scholarship from Em. Benakis. There, he developed close friendships with the painter Vrasidas Tsouchlos and the sculptor Thanasis Apartis.
In 1927, he participated in the Salon des Indépendants and posed for Apartis’s sculpture ‘Hermos,’ which was presented at the exhibition. Simultaneously, he held his first solo exhibition at the Stratigopoulou Gallery in Athens.
In 1930, he joined the second ‘Techni’ (Art) Group.
Between 1933 and 1935, he lived in Ethiopia (Abyssinia), where he painted portraits of the country’s various ethnic types. He held a solo exhibition in Addis Ababa in 1935, and in 1936, he exhibited the works created in Ethiopia at Galerie Gardo in Paris.
In 1946, he married Phrosso Axioti from Mykonos, the sister of Melpo Axioti. Mykonos played a central role in both his life and art.
In 1940 and 1946, he exhibited in Alexandria and Cairo.
In 1947, he held a joint exhibition with Thanasis Apartis at the Zachariou Gallery in Athens.
From the late 1940s onwards, he taught painting and drawing at the school he established.
In 1949, he joined the ‘Group of Painters and Sculptors.’
In 1955, he represented Greece at the 1st Alexandria Biennale.
In 2022, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Teloglion Foundation.