Draft:George Petrides
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George Petrides (born 1964) is a Greek-American sculptor based in Athens and New York, known for more than 30 permanent public sculptures installed across eight countries. His commissions span four continents and are held by a range of institutions including luxury retail flagships, foreign embassies and government agencies, university hospitals, religious institutions, and schools.[1][2] Among his works, Hellenic Heads — a traveling exhibition of six over-life-size busts depicting 2,500 years of Greek history — has toured to eight venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia, drawing more than 100,000 visitors.[3][4] Before pursuing art full-time, he worked in finance as a Managing Director at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.[1][2]
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Education and career
Petrides was born in Athens, Greece, and has spent much of his life between Athens and New York City.[4][3] He received a B.A. in Classics from Harvard College in 1985, where he studied Classical Greek literature and philosophy.[1] He later earned dual master's degrees from Stanford University in 1993: an MBA and an MA in the economics of developing countries.[2]
While working in finance, Petrides studied art part-time for over two decades at institutions including the Art Students League of New York, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and the New York Studio School, where he earned a Certificate in Sculpture.[1][2] In 2017, he left finance to pursue sculpture full-time.[1][2][5]
Artistry
Petrides's artistic process combines traditional hand-sculpting with digital technology. He begins by sculpting in clay, often working from a live model. The clay form is then 3D-scanned to create a digital file, which he refines in modeling software before producing a large-scale version through 3D printing or CNC milling. That version is further reworked by hand before being cast in bronze using the lost-wax method — the same technique used by the ancient Greeks.[2][1] Some works employ mixed media, incorporating epoxy clay, recycled plastic, metals, and custom patinas rather than solid bronze.[6][3]
Public sculptures
Petrides has more than 30 permanent public sculptures installed across eight countries, held by a range of institutions including government agencies, corporate headquarters, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, and religious organizations.[1][2][7]
Tiffany & Co.
Among his most prominent commissions is a series of works for Tiffany & Co. flagship stores across multiple cities. Head of Thalia II, cast in Tiffany Blue bronze, is permanently installed at Tiffany & Co. The Landmark on Fifth Avenue in New York City — the company's flagship store following its major renovation, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal as having become a world-class art destination.[1][8][7] Additional Petrides commissions are permanently installed at Tiffany & Co. locations in Paris, Madrid, and Toronto.[7]
Diplomatic and government institutions
Petrides's work is held by several diplomatic missions of Greece, including the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations in New York, the Consulate General of Greece in New York, and the Embassy of Greece in Rome.[2][4][7] In March 2025, Petrides presented Kore III — a figure modeled after his daughter and made from recycled plastic — to the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations in honor of Greece's participation in the Commission on the Status of Women.[9][10]
Civic and outdoor monuments
In September 2022, Refugee – Woman of Smyrna, a nearly nine-foot bronze figure, was permanently installed in a public square in Neo Psychiko, Athens, in an area historically settled by survivors of the 1922 destruction of Smyrna.[2] The unveiling took place on the centenary of that event. In October 2024, Constantine and the Vision of the Cross was unveiled at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Southampton, New York — a church whose art program also includes works by Santiago Calatrava.[7] In May 2025, Aretaieia, an over-life-size figure of a pregnant woman, was permanently installed on the grounds of the Aretaieion University Hospital in Athens, the first university hospital in Greece.[3][11]
Religious institutions
Petrides has created permanent works for several religious institutions, including the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul, the Simonopetra Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America in New York.[7]
Hellenic Heads
Hellenic Heads is a traveling exhibition consisting of six over-life-size busts, each connecting a pivotal period of Greek history to a member of Petrides's own family:[2][4][6]
- Thalia (Classical Greece), modeled after his mother
- Archon (Byzantine Empire), modeled after his late father
- Heroines of 1821 (Greek War of Independence), modeled after his wife
- The Refugee (Asia Minor Catastrophe, 1920s), modeled after his maternal grandmother, who fled Smyrna in 1922
- Man of Two Wars (Nazi Occupation and Greek Civil War, 1940s), a self-portrait
- Kore (The Present), modeled after his daughter
The exhibition premiered on May 19, 2022, at the Embassy of Greece in Washington, D.C., drawing more than 2,000 visitors on opening day.[1] It subsequently traveled to Southampton, Boston, the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago,[1][6] and the Church of San Giorgio dei Greci courtyard in Venice (May 8 – November 24, 2024), in parallel with the Venice Biennale.[12][3][13][14] As of 2026, the exhibition has been seen by more than 100,000 visitors across eight venues.[1][15]
Publications
- Hellenic Heads: George Petrides – Venice Edition (2025). ISBN 979-8-9925033-0-2
- Hellenic Heads: George Petrides – USA Edition (2024)
- Figure and Form: George Petrides and Nassos Daphnis (2023)
- George Petrides: Recent Work: 2019–2021 (English/French) (2022)
- George Petrides: Recent Work: 2019–2021 (Greek) (2021)
- George Petrides: The Beauty of Imperfection (2020)