Sophia Savalas received training in San Francisco art schools during the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s. She continued schooling through San Jose City College, and further received a B.A. in Art and Psychology from University Without Walls in San Francisco, and a M.A. in Art and Psychology from Goddard College in 1982. She studied art with Vladislav Andreyev, a Russian Icon Master, and with the prominent San Jose, CA, artists Luis Gutierrez, Lynn and Harry Powers, and Gay Schy.

Meridian Gallery, San Francisco. “Stories of Remembered Ancestors” Solo Exhibit.
July 1, 1999 – August 15, 1999.
Judah Magnes Museum, Berkeley “Ancestral Ascent” Installation.
June 1, 2001 – August 1, 2001.
Institute of Noetic Science, Petaluma, CA. “Ancestral Ascent” Installation.
July 15, 2002 – November 1, 2002.
Meridian Gallery, San Francisco. “Mythic Moments” Solo Exhibit.
July 1, 2002 – August 15, 2002.
Review, Bay Area Reporter, July 1, 1999.
Wood, Sura. “Meridian Gallery,” San Francisco Arts Monthly, July, 1999.
Hamlin, Jesse, “Meridian Gallery,” San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, 17 July, 1999.
Hayward, Carl. Review, Art Papers Magazine, Nov./Dec., 1999. Atlanta, GA

In July 1999, just off San Francisco’s Union Square, Sophia launched the public phase of her art as the Selected Artist for Meridian Gallery’s 10th Anniversary Celebration of cross-cultural art.

It took two years for Sophia to produce approximately 25 original pieces displayed at her first one-woman show that was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle Datebook and other Periodicals. In the Chronicle she was quoted:

“Everybody who ate at the Old In-Time Cafe in San Mateo was Greek, at least in the eyes of the owner Dmitri Tsavalas (father of Sophia). I didn’t know until I went to school that Asian, Hispanic, and African American people were not Greek.”

Sophia’s art often melds the ancient tradition of Byzantine icon painting, in which she was steeped, with images, and myths of other cultures. Sophia was selected for showing at the Meridian by Owner and Founder Anne Brodsky, because Sophia’s work is rooted in tradition with a sense of spirituality.”

Sophia was clear that most Greek women don’t go where she chooses to go: “Women didn’t make icons. . . .It’s a patriarchal thing. They paint them, but they don’t show them. It was a big leap for me, I’m 60, I went through the feminist movement. But there’s still a little part of me that says, ‘I hope they don’t yell at me.’”

The San Francisco Arts Monthly added: “The Savalas exhibit. . .consists of 25 objects, including six traditional egg tempera icons as well as larger canvases and structures. On the icons themselves (each of which take 10 days to make), Savalas has used traditional materials: egg tempera, pigment, gold leaf and multiple layers of gesso. Savalas’ relationship to the art form dates back to her paternal grandfather, who was a well-known iconographer in a small Greek village in the Peloponnese, and her uncle, who traveled throughout the U.S. creating icons for Greek Orthodox Churches in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Jose.”

Sophia explains, “I’m steeped in this tradition. . .Iconography is more spiritual than personal. You’re painting as a channel and you are writing the words of God. Each layer of pigment, each stroke of the brush, each color relates to a particular symbolic process.” Further Brodsky, Owner and Founder of Meridian Gallery, adds, “Sophia takes very ancient techniques that are ritualized and makes extraordinarily beautiful and moving icons in that ancient Greek tradition. Then she gives it a more personal and universal range which moves it beyond the devotional object. . .and places it in the realm of contemporary painting.”

Kokkari Estiatorio, San Francisco, CA
Reneau Associates, San Francisco, CA
Angeles Arrien, Petaluma, CA
Gay Luce and David Patton, Corte Madera, CA
Chris and Demetra Alevizos, San Carlos, CA
George Callan, Seattle, WA
Bill Ewing and Michael Allen, San Francisco, CA
Judith Ostrow, Los Gatos, CA
June Steiner and Peter Lyons, Los Gatos, CA
Costa Savalas, Los Angeles, CA
Hank and Suzanne Tolhurst, Campbell, CA
Steve and Marina Pace, Los Gatos, CA
John and Stephanie Butler, San Jose, CA
Kay and John Johnson, Grand Junction, CO
Louis Leiter, San Francisco, CA
Margie and Don Menell, Hidden Hills, CA
Jon Somes, Derby Line, Vermont
Toni and Wayne Kanakaris, San Diego, CA
Argie and Andrew Chrisafis, San Carlos, CA
Ann Brodsky and Tony Williams, San Francisco, CA
Rosemary Jellison, Los Gatos, CA
Kerry Williams, San Jose, CA
Joan Tonyan and Mary Hudak, Sedona, AZ
Matthew Reneau, Sacramento, CA
Tom and Melinda Brown, Carlsbad, CA
Rudy and Judi Vargas, San Carlos, CA
Hannah Watkins, Los Gatos, CA
Bruce and Claire Brennan, Keller, TX
Joe Damour, Albuquerque, NM
Diane Fay, Albuquerque, NM
Lawrence and Anette Goodwin, Duluth, MN
Dan and Peggy Pieper, Ft. Myers, FL
Serena Silva, Philadelphia, PA
Mary Ann Ireland, Oakland, CA
Marcia Pokorny, Morrisville, NC
Demi Pace, Los Angeles, CA
Kerry King and John Goodman, San Francisco, CA
Gabriella Pace, Los Angeles, CA
Spencer Pace, Redlands, CA
Anita Goddard, Los Gatos, CA
Bob Basham, Eureka, CA