Lia Nalbantidou
Lia Nalbantidou was born/is basedin Thessaloniki, Greece.
An independent photographer and practicing artist, who mentors young photographers.
She teaches at the School of Fine Arts – Universityof Western Macedonia in Florina, Greece.
In her late teens she movedoverseas, to pursue a fine arts education at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She received aBachelor of Fine Arts in Photography degree (1991).
In the early ‘90s, she practiced internships at the SmithsonianInstitution in Washington D.C. and private art galleries in New York City.About a decade later (2000), as resident artist at Kulturhuset USF - Bergen theEuropean City of Culture, and participant at IFU Body Academy (an international, intercultural, interdisciplinarygraduate program) hosted by the University of Hannover, she was introduced tothe European visual arts scene and institutions.
Her oeuvre (photographs & photobooks) has been exhibited bothnationally and internationally and is represented in private and public art collections: EMST(National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens), Thessaloniki Photography Museum,Architekturbild EV, Stuttgart, Photoireland Foundation Collection – Dublin,Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library – Yale University, WeserburgResearch Centre for Artists’ Books – Bremen, Gulbenkian Art Library – Lisbon.
The Secure, Private Domain of My Home (1996 -2001) - Zero to Five (Cube Art Editions, Athens: 2002) photobook was funded by J.F. Costopoulos Foundation, Athens.
Urban Secret Garden - why the night photobook dummy (self-published, Thessaloniki: 2013) was shortlisted for the 6th Kassel Dummy Award, Kassel– Germany.
UrbanSecret Garden: a trilogy book of photographs Link2 (Thessaloniki:2016) is a print-on-demand selfpublished photobook.
In 2019, Urban Secret Garden – a reading exhibition (co-funded by MIET – National Bank of Greece CulturalFoundation) was launched in Thessaloniki.
In 2020, amidst the Covid19 spring lockdown, Urban Secret Garden – a reading was exhibited at Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center - Athens.
More info at: http://lianalbantidou.com/