Chryssa (Chryssa Vardea-Mavromichali) was an American artist, born in Greece, who is best known for her monumental assemblages of neon tubes and large-scale minimalistic paintings on canvas. Her work refers to early characteristics of pop art, minimalism and light art.
Today Chryssa is considered as an important representative of these artistic movements and an early pioneer in light art. In the 1960s, she had major solo exhibitions in museums such as the Guggenheim, the MoMA or the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She was represented by the most established galleries of her time, such as Leo Castelli, Pace and Denise René. She had an important influence on artist such as Andy Warhol or Agnes Martin, with whom she lived in an on-and-off relationship during most part of the 60's.
Chryssa studied in Paris from 1953 to 1954, where she was taught by Alberto Giacometti and met artists such as André Breton and Max Ernst. From 1954 to 1955 she attended the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco and then moved to New York. Soon after her arrival Chryssa found her inspiration in large scale neon signs at Times Square. She was stimulated and inspired by the visual impact of urban America and its pop and advertising culture. Her early paintings and sculptures were innovative experiments using typography, newsprint collages, metal molds and alphabetic forms in raised relief. Chryssa's interest in communication and the use of letters was first expressed through small plaster (baked clay) tablets entitled Cycladic Books in 1955, followed by tablets and plaques with single letters, or variations on letter forms. From 1962 onwards, Chryssa used neon lights for her artworks and was thus one of the very first artists to transform this advertising tool into an art medium.
In 1992 she decided to leave New York and to move to a studio in Athens, where she was still working, but almost as an outsider far away from a professional and artistic exchange. She avoided to be in the limelight. And as a consequence of her ongoing psychological problems, she didn’t maintain the contact to her gallerists. In 2013 she passed away. Most of her works were donated to the Museum of Modern Art in Athens, which displays large installations in its permanent collection.