Lia LAPITHI was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1963.

She studied Art and Environmental Design at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and later completed a Master of Philosophy at Lancaster University. She continued her studies in architecture at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, Canterbury, graduating in 1991, and later obtained a Master’s degree in Art Education from the University of Wales in 1994.

Lapithi is a contemporary Cypriot artist whose practice moves across painting, multimedia, installation, video, performance, architecture and social intervention. Her work is often concerned with memory, identity, gender, politics, environmental questions and the complex historical experience of Cyprus.

Her artistic language combines conceptual thinking with a strong visual and material presence. Through objects, images, installations and performative actions, she explores the relationship between private memory and public history, often addressing themes such as displacement, silence, domestic labour, social roles and the political landscape of Cyprus.

Lapithi has also been associated with feminist artistic practices in Cyprus. In 2006, she founded the feminist art group “Washing-Up Ladies”, which examined the role of women in contemporary Cypriot society and politics through collaborative and performative work.

Her work has been presented in exhibitions and international festivals in Cyprus and abroad, including in Athens, Alexandria, Paris, Vienna, Brussels, New York and Constantinople. Her works are held in important public collections, including the Cypriot State Collection of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Lia Lapithi lives and works in Nicosia and remains recognised as an important contemporary Cypriot artist whose practice combines visual art, social critique, feminist thought and political reflection.