Meet the artist

Victoria Smyrniotis graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Visual Culture with a strong emphasis on the Italian Renaissance. She spent the last ten years working as a photographer under her studio name, Persephone Studios, where she focused on photographing Greek Orthodox baptisms, family and child portraits, and personal branding for artists.

2026 marks her first year back into the realm of oil painting, where she is working on a collection of Greek still lifes in oils for her debut summer collection.

She received the Porter College grant while studying at university to create photography and paintings in her father’s village in Greece and plans to begin that work in 2027.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children, who are often at the heart of the world she creates.