Vana Xenou was born in Athens in 1949. She studied painting and stage designing / School of Fine Arts in Athens (1968-1973). In 1973, she studied stage designing / École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. She then pursued her studies in painting and mosaics / École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1974-1978), while simultaneously attended seminars on aesthetics and philosophy École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Université Paris 8, Vencennes (1974). Vana Xenou is currently an emeritus professor at the Department of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens. She was the candidate for Greece in 2008 for the «Women of Europe» award. On 2014, she was honoured by the French Republic with the title of the ‘Officer of the order of the Academic Palms’.