Nia Tavlarides Stratos speaks about her art with a quiet intensity—a reverence that suggests painting,
for her is more than just expression. From the first moment you encounter her artwork—vivid,
multilayered works that shimmer with pigment, glass, and gold leaf—you sense that this is an
artist in conversation, with her environment, with her materials, with her ancestry, and with the
ever-shifting chaos and beauty of being alive.
“I was eight years old when I sold my first painting,” she recalls. “It was turned into fabric by
Burlington Industries and I got paid $35. I remember thinking; ‘I want do this.’” It was the
beginning of a lifelong journey marked by relentless creativity, bold experimentation, and a deep
connection to the natural world around her.
By her senior year of high school, Nia had earned a coveted scholarship to the Smithsonian National
Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. to study printmaking. “I took the Metro every week, which had just
opened—it was all so exciting,” she says. “Our work was eventually exhibited at the National Portrait
Gallery. For a teenager that was a dream.”
Her dreams only expanded from there. In high school Nia took metal shop instead of home economics
and after studying art and design at the University of Maryland, she began designing and selling jewelry
to Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s.
In her late 20’s Nia shifted gears into advertising and then interior design, all the while
feeding her appetite for painting. That hunger became a calling. “I don’t plan my paintings, unless they
are commissions. I just let the work evolve,” she explains. “It’s pure impulse. I’ll look at colors on a plate
or the leaves on a tree and feel the urge—I have to paint this week.”
Her style is both abstract and organic, rooted in a reverence for materials and an almost spiritual
spontaneity. Nia experiments with a variety of materials including acrylics, encaustic wax, oils, pigment
powders, glass, car enamel paint—even fruit net packaging. “I also love metallic and
iridescent finishes,” she says.
Her paintings are reflective of more than just a unique eye for color and a practiced hand. Her
memory, heritage, and unmistakable joie de vivre infuse everything she creates. Her work glows
with iridescent pigment, and often evokes the iconography of her Greek heritage—mosaic, gold
leaf, stained glass and sacred geometry. “My father was a Greek Orthodox priest for over 60 years. He
helped design Saint Sophia Cathedral in Washington, one of the first authentically byzantine cathedrals in America”
she explains. “For decades, the mosaics and designs for Saint Sophia were laid out on our dining room table.
Those tiny pieces of glass and stone, those colors—they’re in my DNA.”
It's visible in her process, too. She sometimes blows pigment through straws, mimicking the
organic fluidity of nature. “It’s about letting go. I never know what a painting will truly be until
it’s done.” That feeling is palpable. Her art radiates warmth and energy, with titles like Elated Spirits and
Evolution hinting at deeper themes of harmony and transformation. “I’m not a sad artist,” she
says. “I create from joy. I want people to feel something when they look at my work—empathy,
connection, maybe even just a moment of beauty.”
Among the places that she has exhibited include: The Smithsonian, The Women’s National Democratic
Club, The OAS Art Museum of the Americas—where her solo exhibition featured 48 works and
drew packed crowds. “That was a highlight,” she says. “But I also loved showing at National
Airport, the exhibit lasted six months and really gave me momentum.” She has presented her art at
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, galleries during Miami Art Basel and in Italy.
Her work is held in both private and corporate collections that include VISA Card Corporation.
Now based in Vienna, Virginia, she finds daily inspiration in the landscape and evolving creative
culture of the DMV. “DC used to be so conservative,” she says. “But now it’s blossoming, it is reflected in
both art and design. People are mixing antiques with bold contemporary art. I’ve grown along with it.”
As fall approaches, she’s prepping new work for upcoming exhibitions. “September is so
transitional—the colors shift, the light changes. That always shows up in my palette.” And for
collectors eager to bring her art home, she does private commissions and now limited edition prints. “I
haven’t really done them before,” she admits, “but I’m ready.”
Nia is, above all, an inventor. Whether she’s creating art with a technique or layering gold leaf
inspired by Byzantine churches, she channels a boundless creative force. “Everything I do in life
speaks to the art I make,” she says. “I think that’s true for all of us. You just have to pay attention.”
“It’s about letting go. I never know what a painting will truly be until
it’s done.”
“I am inspired by the simplest things. Color motivates me - I love to transform the images in my head onto paper, canvas and other surfaces."