Victoria Smyrniotis is a San Francisco Bay Area artist working primarily in oil painting.
She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Visual Culture, where she studied with a focus on the Italian Renaissance. Her early work moved between photography and painting, and she was awarded a Porter College grant to create a body of work about her father’s village in Greece - a project she plans to return to in 2027.
For the last ten years, Victoria has worked as a photographer under her studio name, Persephone Studios, focusing on Greek Orthodox baptisms, family and child portraiture, and personal branding for artists and creative businesses. Her photography practice deepened her attention to light, color, and the quiet in-between moments that often go unnoticed.
In 2026, she returned to oil painting after several years devoted to photography, design, and motherhood. She is currently developing collections of still lifes, remembered landscapes, and paintings rooted in home, memory, and place.
She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two daughters, who are often at the heart of the world she creates.