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Yanni Posnakoff, a Greek by birth and a Russian by
ancestry, was born on 4 August 1933 in Thessaloniki,
Greece. He graduated from the Advanced School of Marine
Engineers. In 1954 he went to U.S.A. on a Fullbright
Scholarship and grant from the Doris Duke Foundation and
the shipowner Marcos Nomikos. There he attended the
University of California, Berkeley, for two years and
continued on a scholarship at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology from which he graduated in 1958
as a naval architect.
In 1965, after having worked as a naval architect for
seven years, he devoted himself entirely to art,
presenting two simultaneous exhibitions in New York
City. Subsequently he presented over thirty exhibitions
in U.S.A. and Europe. In 1989 Posnakoff returned
permanently to Greece and has been preparing a series of
ventures under the title Exemplis Gratis that aim to
vitalize material and spiritual resources.
Posnakoff has been consumed with angels since he began
to draw them when he was four years old. So preoccupied
is Posnakoff with angels that he has vowed to create one
hundred thousand angels in his lifetime, but to date is
still far from the figure. He insists that angels come
in all shapes, sizes, and colors. "I used to see them as
a child, even now I see them in some people," he
explains. He has illustrated two books on the subject,
Children's Letters to God (a best-seller which has been
translated into seven languages) and Ask Your Angels (Balentine
Press). He is himself angelic and volunteered his time
and energies in community programs aimed at encouraging
youngsters to engage in creative activities. In 1988 he
founded the Angel Gallery in New York City and kept the
door open 24-hours a day. It became such a refuge for
the homeless that Posnakoff himself moved out of his
apartment and lived in the gallery in order to care for
the homeless.
Yanni Posnakoff has presented the following exhibitions:
Art, Thessaloniki (1968); Nees Morfes, Athens (1971);
Diogenis, Athens (1973-1980); and Omega Gallery, Athens
(1983). Artworks by Posnakoff are kept at the following
institutions: The American College of Greece, Athens;
Museum of Modern Art, Thessaloniki; and the Vorres
Museum, Peania.
Yanni Posnakoff currently lives and works in Athens. |
