Rania Bellou was born in 1982 in Thessaloniki. In 2005 she graduated from the School of Fine Arts at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in 2006 she completed her Master’s degree in Scenography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London.
In 2008 she was awarded the 1st Yiannis Spyropoulos Prize by the Yiannis and Zoe Spyropoulos Foundation. From her early steps, as she stated in a previous interview, she had a clear vision of what she wanted to pursue, and this determination shaped the choices in her artistic journey.
When asked “What does Greece mean to you?”, she answered:
“Greece is my roots. It is my family, my past.”
And if she were to depict Greece in one of her works, she would combine ancient Greek statues and monuments with contemporary people.
The first years of her career found her participating in exhibitions in Greece and abroad. In 2009 she held a solo exhibition in Thessaloniki titled “Living in a Cerebral Fortress” presented by Kalfayan Galleries, while also taking part in the “Summer Exhibition” at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. In 2010 she participated in the 2nd Moscow Biennale for Young Art, the LUCCA Digital PHOTOFest in Italy, the KODRA Festival in Thessaloniki and the group exhibition “Oasis and A-oasis” in Megara. In 2011 she showcased works at the Ex-Teresa Museum and the National School for the Arts in Mexico City.
Development and international recognition
In the following years, the artist broadened her work and themes, focusing particularly on memory, archival material, the management of time and the intersections of personal and collective history.
Rania Bellou lives and works in Athens. She has received a fellowship from the Onassis Foundation and in 2018 was awarded a monetary prize from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Support Program through ARTWORKS. She has presented her works in significant venues in Greece and abroad, including Kalfayan Galleries in Athens with the exhibition “Immortal Love or Ode to the Past”, the National Museum of Contemporary Art of China in Beijing, the Athens Concert Hall and the Vorres Museum. In 2023 she participated in the exhibition “Blast from the Past” at Kalfayan Galleries, while in 2025 her work was highlighted within the ARTWORKS program in collaboration with the Museum of Cycladic Art.
At the same time, she has developed creative workshops at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, such as the program “Insightful Lines,” exploring the relationship between memory, dreams and symbolic pathways.
Rania Bellou’s work continues to evolve dynamically, integrating personal memory into a broader artistic and social context. Through solo and group exhibitions, artistic actions and collaborations, she remains one of the most active Greek visual artists of her generation. As of 2025 she is still fully engaged, enriching the dialogue on the art of memory and constantly opening new perspectives in the contemporary art scene.
