About – Achilles Lavidis

Artist Statement - Achilles Lavidis

As humans we seek meaning and finally to repose.

Uprooted from my childhood utopia and transported to a foreign land like Odysseus, I am
always looking for home. Above all, I find this home in trusting the fundamentals and let the
forms, the colors and the expression be purely instinctive to transcend, like the signatures
one signs daily, from the object and seek the spirit.

I have traveled a great deal in both life and in art. My retreat to Mount Athos in Greece as
well as living in the dessert of Australia are both religious experiences. When approaching
Uluru and Kata Tjuta there is a sense that these “earthly titans” on the red terracotta earth
are merely hibernating, waiting for the day to rise again. The spirituality one feels had a
profound effect on me, so much so that I have carried the landscape within me all the way to
New York City.

Biography

Achilles Lavidis is an Australian Citizen living in Manhattan New
Multi-dimensional in Architecture, art, design, illustration, acting, writing, directing both theatre and film.
Born in Ismailia Egypt with Greek Ancestry, his family immigrated to Sydney Australia when he was only eight.
In fifth grade, his schoolteacher drew him out front of the class with his painting. It was in this moment that he knew he had a talent for the visual The question was which of the arts.
He chose to study Architecture, as a compromise, where he excelled in Design and pictorial presentation.
After completing his studies, he was employed by Philip Cox and Partners Architects, where he experienced the Red Center of Australia while working on the design and construction of Yulara, the self-sustainable township, in the Northern Territory.
From 1982 – 1985 he taught drawing to interior design students at the University of Technology – Sydney, Australia.
From 1986 – 1988 he studied Acting at the Drama Studio in
In 1991 he attended the Post Graduate Film program at Melbourne.
In 1993 he was in repertoire touring as an actor for Bell Shakespeare Company throughout
In 1994 he moved to New
From 2007 – 2010 he critiqued at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn,
From 2020 to the Lavidis has been painting large format paintings on canvases and on paper.
His Instagram Subwaylines is his “life drawing portraits” of passengers on his daily commutes within the New York subway.
Currently, Achilles is planning his first art exhibit before settling back in Australia, where he will reflect upon and paint on his 30 years in New York.

STUDIES

1976-81	Bachelor of Science (Architecture), UNSW, Sydney Australia
1986-88	Acting Diploma, Drama Studio, Sydney Australia
1991-92	Post Graduate Film Directing, Swinburne. Melbourne Australia