[2] Karpidas moved from Manchester to London in her early 20s after studying at secretarial school but then relocated to Greece where she opened a clothing boutique in Athens called My Fair Lady.
[7] Over the years, she worked with Sadie Coles[8] on hosting work by many artists at the Hydra Workshop, including Wilhelm Sasnal (2004),[9] Urs Fischer (2007), Carroll Dunham (2008),[10] Nate Lowman (2010), Sergej Jensen (2010),[11] Frank Benson (2011), Matt Johnson (2011), Mark Grotjahn (2011)[12] and Ryan Sullivan (2013).
In a 2007 interview with journalist Marina Fokidis, Karpidas said of her Hydra Gallery, Having lived now for almost 35 years in Greece, and having been part of the Greek heritage through my marriage to my late husband, Constantine Karpidas, this is a way for me to continue his legacy, his involvement with and support of the arts.
Characterizing the 1962 painting, art dealer Tony Shafrazi said, "We’ve seen nothing like this recently [come to auction], this is a masterpiece."
[17] Karpidas is a benefactor of the Tate and the Sir John Soane's Museum in London, and an education centre at New York's New Museum is named after her and her late husband—The Pauline and Constantine Karpidas Education Center.