Azariah Madanian was born in Heraklion, Crete, to an Armenian father and a Greek mother.

He studied on a scholarship at the School of Fine Arts - Art History at the American University of Beirut. He has held solo and group exhibitions of paintings in Greece, the Middle East and the USA in art centers and well-known galleries. At Harvard University he accepted his application to participate in the Doctoral Program in General Art History. In June 1979 he was awarded the Ph.D. unanimously.In 1990 he was a lecturer in Aesthetic Education at the University of Crete in the Department of Kindergarten Education.