Kostas Varotsos was born in 1955 in Athens. He studied painting at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome (1973-76) and architecture in Pescara, at the Arte Scuola di Architettura of the University of Pescara (1976-81), where he began his career with exhibitions and performances.

His first solo exhibition was organized in Athens (Desmos gallery, 1982), shortly after his return to Greece and he also participated in Europalia '82 festival in Belgium. His work was still at the borderline between painting and sculpture, but he had already demonstrated an interest in transparent materials and in the relationship between the work of art and its environment.

In 1983, he builds in Nicosia, Cyprus a large sculpture of glass plates, entitled Poet, which would be placed at the historic relic and cultural centre of Famagusta Gate. From this experience, the long debated Runner of Athens will be derived; an 8-metre-high sculpture of glass and metal, which was placed initially at Omonia Square (1988) and was afterwards moved to the square of the Megali tou Genous Scholi (1994).

With his sculpture, he seeks the interaction of his project with its surroundings; therefore, he often creates works in situ, as artistic interventions in urban space or in natural landscape, in Greece and abroad. His work has also been installed at the ‘Doukissis Plakentias’ Athens Metro station. Certain themes (Horizons Labyrinths, Bridges), reappear occasionally in his work. Some projects built specifically for public spaces, have been constructed in consultation with the residents, as a form of dialogue between art and the public.

Apart from Greece and Italy, where his artistic activity is intense and frequent, he has shown his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions, all over the world. In 1987 he participated in the Biennale of Sao Paulo, while he participated twice in the Venice Biennale, in 1993 representing Italy and in 1999 representing Greece (among other Greek artists). That same year he was elected Professor of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Many of his projects have received awards. He was honored for his overall artistic contribution to Italy with the title of Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana (2004) and the award Segno d'Oro (2007). A monograph on his work was published in 2009.