The painter Giannis Maltezos was born in Smyrna in 1915 and passed away in Athens in 1987.
He studied in a private studio and at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
He was a friend of Giannis Gaitis, with whom he shared common artistic interests. Both were among the first Greek artists to join the abstraction movement in the mid-1950s. The color in Maltezos’s paintings acquires an intense relief texture, bringing the artistic gesture to the forefront. Towards the mid-1970s, he transitioned to Op Art.
He exhibited abstract works for the first time at the Panhellenic Exhibition of 1957. In 1959, he settled permanently in Paris and presented several solo exhibitions while also participating in group exhibitions in Europe and America.
He was a member of the art group “Oi Akraioi” (The Extremists, 1949) and the “Omada Technis A” (Art Group A, 1961).