Who We Are
Born in Athens, November 10, 1957, Ion Frantzeskakis graduated from Moraitis School and then studied art and design at the Vakalo College, Athens and publishing at London College of Printing of the University of the Arts, London.
He worked under different capacities in family-owned "Zygos" arts magazine and at Galerie Zygos of fine arts. Upon finishing his military service, which in Greece is compulsory for men, as an NCO Interpreter/Translator for the Greek Armour Officers Academy (1979-1981), he published and edited "Zygos Annual Edition on the Hellenic Fine Arts" (1982-1985). In 1985 he moved to the U.S. and, representing Zygos, he launched and directed Zygos Gallery in Washington D.C. (1985-1991). He was appointed Executive Director of the Society for the Preservation of the Greek Heritage (SPGH), with headquarters in Washington, DC (1991). In 1991 he moved to the West Coast and launched and founded and directed publishing and marketing company Ionic Concepts, CA (1992-1999) with clients including the Greek National Tourism Organization of the Americas, headquartered in New York, the Greek Trade Commission, Chevron Lubricants, the Bank of Canton of Northern California, Cooking Excellence of New York, and several others. He also served as a consultant to the Hellenic Journal, CA, and Hellenic Pilgrimage, NY, as well as a consultant to the Hellenic Dimension Project , Chicago, IL. He served as President of the Lookout Sculpture Park West, and in the boards of the Petaluma Downtown Association, the Cyprus Museum of North Carolina, and others. Ion also founded and directed Stoa Gallery, in Petaluma, Northern California (1995-1997), which soon became a meeting point of the arts. In 2000 Ion repatriated to his native Athens and re-opened Galerie Zygos which had ceased operations due to his parents’ retirement. However, as of April 2009, Galerie Zygos has suspended its exhibition schedule and is operating as an art dealership, sans space, until further notice, mostly through ebay and through www.zygos4art.com. Over the last few years, and aside from his involvement with the zygos4art.com legacy website, Ion is heavily involved with the publishing and administration of athenskey.com, a website in English about his hometown Athens, designed to be a travel companion for the city of Athens and all things Greek, including information on travel, hotel, villa and home rental accommodation, cruises, yachting and sailing, excursions and tours around Athens, archaeological sites and sightseeing, museums, events, what to do, what to see, where to shop from, when in Athens. |
e-mail:
ion.frantzeskakis@gmail.com facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ion.frantzeskakis twitter: https://twitter.com/ionfrantzeskaki |