Born in Athens by parents from Medieval Greek (Asia Minor).
She studied graphics and photography and edited magazine illustrations, movie posters and company logos.
In 2003, she began experimenting with jewellery as a kind of psychotherapy in her effort to overcome a serious health problem. As confessed, at first it was a purely personal affair.
She started making jewelry which were at first hidden in boxes, until relatives and friends urged her to take the next step and present her work. So she started a visual journey that keeps up to date offering new emotions to herself and to the public, who remains faithful to her creations.
In 2014 she presented her jewelries at the Skoufa Gallery in Athens and in 2016 she participated in the "New Territories" exhibition of the Jewelry Museum "Elias Lalaounis."
She lives and works in Athens. She travels around the world to get acquainted with foreign cultures and discover new materials for her jewelery.
The world is one. It's important to find it out.
The artistic creations of Christina Mantzavinou-Athanasoula "carry" a lot of memories. They show the beauty of the past through pieces that capture the looks and the imagination.
Christina has worked on applied arts and graphic design. She is self-taught in jewellelry art. Through her works she expresses love, pain and hope for life. "My jewelry is a whole adventure of mind and soul. As a result of constant search for forgotten treasures open markets and bazaars around the world," she notes.
It is a constant exercise of gaze until it finds that object, the material which will trigger a new creation. She manages and gives breath to materials that have passed into oblivion or obsolescence. She reaches with affection things which are considered to be past date and gives them another opportunity, turning them into pieces of art that attract the audience in Greece and Cyprus. Her jewellery is unique and impossible to remade. They are divided into four categories:
National: Jewelry inspired by the travels and explorations of the artist in the markets and bazaars of the world (from Belarus and Morocco to China and India), with an emphasis on the particular culture of every people and place.
African: Jewellery of wood and bone as the main materials, with a strong symbolic character and special significance. They bring insights from the visual traditions of sub-Saharan Africa and the selective abstraction that distinguishes African art.
Traditional: Costumes with strong influences from the goldsmiths of Ioannina and from the tradition of Asia Minor. Christina marries nostalgically and creatively yesterday with today, incorporating in her jewellery Phillips metal elements as well as fabrics of traditional embroidery and woven fabrics.
