On completing her studies at the École Cantonale de Dessin et d’Art Appliqué in Lausanne (1952–1954) and in engraving and painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1954–1958), Kanagini undertook postgraduate studies at the Central School of Art and Design in London (1958–1961).
The fundamental principles of her abstract language were shaped during this time. Her immersion in the analytical methodologies of the Bauhaus, coupled with guidance by her teachers William Turnbull and Alan Davie, bolstered her explorations of the interrelations between form, materiality, and meaning, laying the foundations for her later experimental and conceptual practices.
The early work of Niki Kanagini falls within the sphere of abstraction and captures her investigations into, and reflections on the principles of modernism. The artist explores form, materiality, and space as independent elements, developing an artistic language that walks the line between structural rigour and personal gesture. As she herself notes: “In an attempt at self-analysis and introspection, I should say here that my personal sense of painterly expression revolves primarily around research, as well as a study of the “process” that this sort of investigation entails.
