Poly Kanistra was born in Piraeus and studied in the Department of Graphic Arts at the Doxiadis School from 1971 to 1974, with instructors including sculptors Yiannis Parmakelis and Giorgos Georgiadis, and painters Maria Spentza, Takis Katsoulidis, Dimitris Mytaras, and Petros Zoumboulakis. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece. She works with painting, sculpture, and jewelry, has illustrated books, and created posters. She has held 11 solo exhibitions in Greece and Germany and participated in 60 group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. In 2019, she was awarded the Grand Prix at NAIVA BRATISLAVA, an International Naive Art Exhibition. She also received an Honorable Mention in the Panhellenic Poster Competition of the European Communities Commission.