Artist Bio

Sacred Artist and Iconographer Vas Avramidis

Sacred artist and iconographer Vas Avramidis has been studying art and iconography for nearly twenty years. While he always liked to draw and create visual imagery, Avramidis began pursuing art as a wood carver and graphic designer. Being self-taught for most of his career, in his early 30’s, Avramidis began to study art on the college level, enrolling first at a local community college and then at SUNY/Empire State for his bachelors degree in Visual Studies. Along the way, Avramidis studied privately with many established artists, including: Monk Lazarus, Jerry Certulo, Matt Archambault, Seraphim Roussopoulos, Vladislav Andreyev, and Maureen McCormack.

In addition to formal art training, Avramidis has been studying sacred theology; first under the guidance of monks with whom he lived while contemplating monastic vows, and later at the St. Elias Orthodox Seminary. Avramidis has since gotten married and been ordained to the priesthood in the Eastern Orthodox Church, a christian denomination with roots in the early church. It in this environment of prayer, tradition, and mediation that Avramidis first discovered a desire to create sacred art and iconography.

In 2013 and again in 2014, Vas Avramidis was awarded the Folk Arts Apprenticeship grant from the NJ Council on the Arts. The grant will allow Avramidis to continue formally studying Byzantine Iconography, a sacred arts tradition that dates to the 3rd century. Communicating the love of God through art is Avramidis’ chief aim. His art seeks to find the beauty in ordinary life, to awaken our senses, and lead us back to Christ; for it is in Christ that “we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17.8)

In 2017 the New Jersey State Art Museum has requested one of Avramidis’ iconsto put on exhibit from February through August.

Vas Avramidis is based in Pittstown New Jersey (NJ) and is available for iconography and sacred art commissions and projects as well as speaking engagements, workshops, and classes.

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