1950 - 2016
As a Greek of the diaspora, George Lappas makes intensive use of geography and mapping in his work, in which landscapes turn into a map of the world. His life was marked by his countless journeys, starting from his birthplace, Cairo, Egypt in 1950. In 1958 the family moves to Greece, where he completes his secondary education in Athens. From 1969 to 1973 he studies clinical psychology at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, USA, going into research and participating in psychiatric programmes at clinics in Salem, Oregon, as well as San Francisco and San Diego, California. In 1974 he travels to India on a Watson Foundation grant to document Indian sculpture and architecture. He visits Afghanistan and Persia. In 1975 he studies at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and continues with a seminar in Italy. From 1976 to 1981 he studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Yannis Pappas and Giorgos Nikolaidis, graduating with distinction. In 1984 he obtains a French state scholarship for the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studies sculpture. In 1986–87 he works in France and England. In 1991, a Cartier Foundation schol- arship takes him to Jouy-en-Josas. Between 1987 and 2016 he teaches as Professor of sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts, introducing an entire new and groundbreaking method for training young artists. In the meantime he continues to travel to Canada, China, Japan, Russia, USA, Brazil, Korea and all over Europe, not giving up this insatiable curiosity which leads him to his own utopia.