1954-1959 Artist in Paris

Simossi receives from the Greek state a scholarship for studies abroad.

On 30 September 1954, Gabriella Simossi marries Yannis Gaïtis in Athens. In October they move together to Paris.

1955

She attends classes at the School of Decorative Arts and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, where she studies under the sculptor Ossip Zadkine.

She participates in the Salon d’Automne at the Grand Palais and in the Salon de la Jeune Sculpture at the Musée Rodin, where she exhibits regularly until 1972.

1956

She represents Greece, along with fifteen compatriots, at the First International Exhibition of Contemporary Fine Arts at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.

1957

She takes part in the Salon Comparaisons at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Her collaboration with the Galerie Paul Facchetti de Paris starts.

1958

Her only daughter, Loretta, is born on 10 September 1958.

She participates in the exhibition dedicated to Greek Artists in Paris at the Maison internationale de la Cité Universitaire.

1960

The family moves to a studio at 76 rue de Sèvres in Paris. Gabriella will inhabit it for thirty-nine years until her passing.

The plaster becomes her preferred material.

1962

With Yannis Gaïtis, Michel Vafiadis, Jason Molfessis, Yannis Maltezos, and Georges Touyas, she co-founds the group « Kendra » (Centres) that exhibits in Athens at the gallery Nees Morphes in 1963 and 1964, and in Paris at the Galerie A in 1964.

1963

She participates in the exhibition Young Greek Artists at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

1964

She sculpts Noon for the house of Jean-Marie Drot on the island of Ios.

She is invited at Forma Viva, International Symposium in Kostanjevica in Yugoslavia, where she creates a three-meter-tall wooden sculpture. In the same year, she exhibits at The Little Gallery in Philadelphia, USA.

During this period, she creates a series of small bronze elephants, and later, large plaster elephants.

1965

She exhibits her large plaster elephants at Gallery A. Upon returning to Ios, she sculpts Pegasus and the Warrior for Jean-Marie Drot’s house.

1967

She participates in the Salon de la Jeune sculpture with the works Aegisthus and Clytemnestra exhibited at Gaïtis-Simossi Museum.