Born in Athens, Irini Gonou graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs of Paris, where she lived for eleven years. She studied Paleography at the NGB Historical and Paleographical Archive of Athens

 

She has shown her art work in thirty solo exhibitions in Greece, Cyprus, France, Germany, UK, Belgium, USA, Norway and Egypt.

 

Since 1995 her visual explorations move towards the Islamic and North African Cultures as a part of the wide Mediterranean cultural area. In her recent solo exhibitions she is interested to the subject of the healing and protective power of the written word in Arabic script. In her works the poetic language replaces the magic formulas considering anew the healing properties of art in modern societies.

 

Her solo exhibition Al-Khatt, the magic script in 2008 was a visual dialog with the exhibits of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens.

The same exhibition has been shown in the same year at Alatza Imaret in Thessaloniki, Greece

 

2012: A Tale of Two Cultures, Lahd Gallery, Hampstead, London, UK

 

2013: Τhe Sheltering Word, Heyman Center for Humanities, Columbia University, NY, USA

 

2013: Talismans, Martinos Art Gallery, Athens

 

2014: Magic scripts-Apotropaic texts, Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Chr.Michelsen Institute,Norway

 

2014-2015: Whispering Reeds in Woven Garden, Imaret and Mohamed Ali Museum, Kavala, Greece

 

2015: Participation with Nitra Gallery at the ArtInternational Istambul 2015

 

2016: lest we forget how fragile we are, Nitra Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece

 

2017: The Blue Procession, mapping a metaphorical journey, Kaloritsa, Bazaios Tower, Naxos, Greece

 

2018: De Materia Magica, Evripides Art Gallery, Athens, Greece

 

Her artwork is included to the collections of the French Ministry of Culture, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art in Athens, Ministry of Culture in Egypt, HCH at Columbia University in USA, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece, the Research Center Mohamed Ali, to the Musée Ernest Renan in France, Museum of Contemporary Art in Florina, also to Municipal Galleries, private Museums and Foundations, and to a variety of important private collections.

 

She lives and works in Naxos and Athens and teaches regular workshops on the Mediterranean Scripts and at Michelangelo Foundation - Homo Faber.