ART ATHINA INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR
(18/09 - 22/09/2025, a.antonopoulou.art gallery)
One of the oldest art fairs in Europe, Art Athina has been active since its establishment by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association in 1993.
Group show MOUNTAINS, THICKETS, WATERS (17/08 - 31/10/2025, City Museum of Volos)
"Contemporary ecological explorations, featuring the participation of 27 visual artists. The exhibition, curated by Ioanna Kafida and organized in collaboration with the Department of Archives, Museums, and Libraries of the Municipality of Volos, addresses issues of environmental crisis and ecological awareness through the language of art.
Paintings, engravings, installations, videos, and mixed media form a poly- phonic dialogue that focuses on the natural world not as a backdrop but
as a protagonist in human history and cultural development. The "mountains" refer to spirituality and transcendence, the "thickets" to the in-between space of the familiar and the unknown, while the "waters" are linked to the flow of life and the transformation of the planetary ecosystem.
The exhibition invites the viewer to reconsider their relationship with nature: not as a consumer, but as a participant. Here, art functions as a bridge between emotion and knowledge, poetry and science, proposing a relationship of recognition and care with the environment. The participating artists shape through their works a contemporary ecological narrative full of sensitivity, depth, and urgent relevance."
Text by Ioanna Kafida/ Painter
Group show TIMELESS TEXTURES (01/06 - 31/10//2025, a.antonopoulou.art gallery)
"The Folklore and Historical Museum of Larissa, presents the exhibition “Timeless Textures”, a curatorial project that explores the fertile encounter between traditional weaving art and contemporary visual creation.
The exhibition brings into dialogue valuable artifacts of local cultural heritage with works by fourteen contemporary artists, creating a network of references, memory, and aesthetic exploration. Authentic examples of Thessalian weaving from the Museum’s collections meet new artistic propositions inspired by the materiality, motifs, and symbolic resonances of tradition.
The concept of “texture” functions as the thematic axis: materiality, touch, craftsmanship, narration, memory, and contemporary reflection. Each work, each exhibit, acts as a fragment in a timeless narrative that connects yesterday with today.
The artistic curation and exhibition design are by Katerina Velliou and Vasilιos Karampatsas, the scientific documentation and curatorship of Thessalian weaving are undertaken by Fani Kalokairinou, while the theoretical text is written by art historian Eleana Stoïkou
Solo show WHAT I SEE WHEN THE STREET WALKS OVER ME (03/04 - 17/05/2025, a.antonopoulou.art gallery)
"The forms of Kiki Kolympari look like solid masses that are melting, like vaguely familiar objects diffracted behind a wet pane of glass, elongated and twisted as the laws of some inner, mental physics tamper with our vision and distort their shapes.[…]Already known since antiquity, anamorphosis is meant either to showcase the artist's technical prowess or to allude to the hidden signs of the world; it changes the image's perspective and proportions so that the form becomes twisted or illegible when seen from the front, and is only restored when the viewer adopts a specific vantage point outside the artwork. In Kiki Kolympari this vantage point is not there; the works have no keys for recognising their reference objects and the artist herself insists on not revealing them, true to the modernist tradition which holds that what's interesting is not the representation but the painterly reworking of the experience. The objects and their relations have been absorbed into the realm of abstraction […]. The abstraction of Kiki Kolympari—joyous, colourful and undulating on a first level— inscribes a precarious and agitated sentimentality, time as a one-way motion, the tension of a closed space, and thus allows a glimpse into the mental more than the representational starting point of the works. It is an anamorphosis meant to place viewers at a specific point in space and get them to look at the work in a way which will restore their mental dynamic—a dynamic that hovers between exposure and concealment.
Text by Theophilos Tramboulis/ Art critic, Writer
Solo show TRAVELLER (05/04 - 27/04/2024, Stand in Line- Artspace)
""Kiki Kolympari presents a body of work that emerges from her inner psychic landscape and carries the texture of the complex mechanisms of fantasy and dream, of the associations born from reverie. A painting may originate from an image of everyday life and then develop associatively, freely, in directions that have not been consciously chosen, through colors and motifs that at first sight may seem foreign or even unrelated to one another. Kiki Kolympari appears to take delight in the surprise she encounters while painting each work. The usual gestures, contrasts, and even accidental discoveries are part of the process that offers a thread—the end of the yarn that the painter unwinds during creation, right up to the final brushstroke. The main aim, therefore, is an intuitive approach to the image. Her ticket of entry consists not only of images of reality, memory, or contemplation, but above all, of their coexistence with motifs and symbols within the boundaries revealed by the rich texture of color on the canvas.
Traces of realism within non-realistic environments seem to speak of the hidden truths that orchestrate our world each time. It is as if the painter has entered another dimension and brought back, on our behalf, the precious snapshot we behold. Yet, her painting offers no compass for the viewer’s precise positioning before it. It remains open to each gaze, to interpretations that lead to countless journeys between the obvious and the ambiguous, the visible and the concealed.
Text by George Mylonas/ Art Historian
WO MAN SICH TRIFFT/ WHERE WE MEET
Exhibition at the Emsdettener Kunstverein
3 Sept.– 15 Oct., 2023 curated by Jurriaan Benschop
Starting from the conception of a painting as a place to meet, different approaches can be observed in this international group exhibition. The show looks into the various ways that contemporary painters stage encounters, be it imaginary or with an abstract other. While some of the works guide the spectator’s imagination by delivering a figurative scene or by creating an interior with meaningful objects, others retreat into an exclusive, painterly world, where forms seem to float freely, or where there is no clear sense of perspective but merely the immediate impact of color, surface, and shape instead. The different ways the artists create and handle pictorial space is an extension of their conceptions of what a painting should be or present, and how it anticipates the presence of the other. Participating artists: Matthias Weischer, Lara de Moor, Rezi van Lankveld, Kiki Kolympari, David Benforado, Erwin Bohatsch, and Caitlin Lonegan.
The exhibitioon titled ENCORE: NEW GREEK PAINTING (27/06 - 10/09/23, Municipal Gallery of Athens) adopts an interrogatory nature.
How does the internet’s dynamic influence the creative process, the perception of what should be depicted, and the structure of the frame? Are the fragmentary and appositive qualities of narratives and images related to the overwhelming tab culture from which artists typically derive their imagery? Why do many painters pursue the representation of seemingly incidental images, stripped of any psychological, existential, or political context? What are the limits of an “expanded painting space” beyond the two dimensions of the canvas? To what extent can artists push not only the boundaries of painting but also those of sculpture or craft?
A conversation on painting is also a discussion on the materiality of contemporary artwork. What physical and metaphorical space remains for paintings whose materiality necessitates territoriality in their conception, creation, storage, and the artist’s professional ownership? Lastly, painting requires acquiring skills and time spent in apprenticeship; it results from a training process. In an era marked by the devaluation of the education system, particularly public art education, an exhibition focusing on painting primarily explores the artwork as an object. It delves into art as a system of knowledge and concerted policy action.
Group show titled "...AND A LITTLE BIT OF RED" (20/10 - 12/11/22) organized and hosted by the Athens Art Gallery, including works of major artists, such as John Christoforou, Diko Vyzantios and Dimitris Perdikidis.
The children's book "Der schüchterne König", with illustrations by Kiki Kolympari participates in the world's biggest book fair, the FRANKFURTER BUCHMESSE, 19/10 - 23/10/22 with Galbeni Culture!
Year 2022 marks a century since the Asia Minor Catastrophe. "IN MEMORY LAND" is a group exhibition, dedicated to those 1,200,000 Greeks who, with the defeat of the Greek army and the burning of Smyrna (today turkish Izmir) by the turkish military, were forced to flee to mainland Greece under appalling conditions.
The exhibition is being hosted the Greek Refugees Museum in Thessaloniki. Curated by Francesco Piazza, organized by Vassilis Karambatsas, supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Neapoli/Sykies and the Greek-Italian Community of Trinacria. Duration: 08/10-08/12/22
Solo show AFTERIMAGES (05/05 - 18/06/22, Athens Art Gallery)
"... The paintings have one foot in the world as we know it and the other foot in abstraction and imagination. The artist extracted certain shapes from what she saw, and then she changed the color, allowed a line or detail to grow, to have a life of its own. She let accidents happen, let paint run or drip. She moved away from what was observed and instead directed her attention to the dynamics the shapes evoke, creating an afterimage or a further development of the initial motif.
These works offer us a range of sensibilities caused by colors at play. These aspects relate primarily to the question of how it was painted, not what was painted. Kiki Kolympari shifts gears within individual paintings. Firm, decisive brushstrokes evoking speed press against other areas where the paint is brought on thin or remains calm. Bold gestures give the paintings a general outline, a sense of stability, while softer and gentler areas create nuances. The works present themselves as a play of balancing forces.
With these works, the artist does not attempt to educate or make any points about the state of the world, the next crisis, or the right solution. Rather, she presents a series of visual situations that have their roots in daily life, but were transformed into something different. A painted presence that is just as much illusion as it is material fact."
Text by Jurriaan Benschop/ Writer and Curator
"21! NEW GREEK PAINTING" is about the present of new Greek painting, its trends, its expressions, its interactions, its future.
It is an experimental exhibition on perhaps the most traditional medium, painting. It includes 21 painters who open new, exciting and unexpected paths in contemporary Greek art. Without certainties and without explicit conceptions, the exhibition invites the viewer to give his own answers and to develop his own emotional relationships with the work and its enjoyment.
Duration: December 2021-January 2022
Edited by: Ex Situ (Eleni Koukou and Theofilos Trampoulis)
Organized by: Cultural Sports Organization of the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos, Ephorate of Antiquities of Lassithi, Region of Crete and ex situ
Under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture
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Participation at ART ATHINA 2021. One of the oldest art fairs in Europe, Art Athina has been active since its establishment by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association in 1993. Its strong institutional presence is realized today by the art fair itself, hosting Greek and international galleries and by its multidisciplinary parallel activities and programming.
Organized on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution of 1821 and hosted by the Museum of Byzantine Culture in the City of Thessaloniki, the exhibition "WAAG- We are all Greeks" develops through a path of seven stages:Flag, Sacrifice, Homeland, Philhellenism, Heroes, Political Power, Freedom. Topics that are described historically with the contribution of the professorof Political History at SSE, Mr. N. Tombros, through concise texts, poems or sections of political speeches, but also artistically through the works of 15 leading Italian and Greek artists.
Duration: 15/05 - 29/08/21
Curated by Francesco Piazza
Coordinated by Vasilis Karampatsas
LANDSCAPE SYMPHONY group exhibition in Palermo, organized by Edizioni Bisso, with artworks of four contemporary artists, presenting the correlation between the human universe, physical space and perception.
In its own way, art assembles pieces of the world and shreds of
landscapes, which are also gazes, objects, places populated by dreamlike figures in which love exists in spite of races and cultures.
Participation at ART ATHINA 2020. One of the oldest art fairs in Europe, Art Athina has been active since its establishment by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association in 1993. Its strong institutional presence is realized today by the art fair itself, hosting Greek and international galleries and by its multidisciplinary parallel activities and programming.
ENTITY BATTLEFIELDS (01-30/08/2020, Pinacotheque of the Cyclades, Syros/ Greece) is an exhibition presenting works of three artists.
Conflicts, rivalry, ideological oppositions, social confrontations are being "investigated".
The philosophical question of whether the disintegration of a unity of ideas or members of a human body that constitute a unity or an entity can be effective for re-constitution, creation or not, is being debated. This conflict can, however, lead to reconstitution, redistribution of roles and ideas, leading to the best creative result.
A MATTER OF TOUCH - Painting from Europe and the USA
(17/07-30/08/2020)
Though keeping distance is becoming the norm in public life, in the realm of paintings, we can be reminded of physical encounters and intimacy, and enjoy a close perspective. The artists in this exhibition embrace the tactile and are interested in paintings as physical matter. Yet their focus is also on less tangible aspects of the artworks, such as luminosity, radiance, or absence. The importance of light can be felt throughout a range of different motifs and vocabularies. The works have been collected from studios on both sides of the Atlantic. Due to the pandemic, not all artists are able to be present for the opening, yet their works offer us an artistic dialogue across borders. The paintings find a temporary home in the ruinous beauty of the Kunst- und Projekthaus Torstrasse 111. Located in the center of Berlin, the space evokes the time when the city offered itself as an artistic Freiraum.
Curated by Jurriaan Benschop
Inspirés par l'été d'Albert Camus (23/07-28/09/2019, Athens Art Gallery)
On the occasion of Albert Camus;s novel "Summer" the artists of this group show, choose a passage of the chapter "Return to Tipaza".and create a new work inspired by that.
With references to what is happening in the world, the absurdity of life, the "inner summer", innocence, love, beauty, justice, hope, dependence, the transcendental moments one feels when in nature, the sense of being alone and free, and the catalytic power of memory.
On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death, the Art Commission Association in collaboration with the Museo di Sant’Agostino of Genoa, presents the LEONARDESCA contemporary art exhibition.
The exhibition curated by Virginia Monteverde with the critical presentation of Lorenzo Mortara, will be inaugurated on Saturday 27 April at 17:00 and will remain on show until 31 May 2019, at the Sant’Agostino Museum. By June the exhibition will move to Poland housed within the Castle of the Pomeranian Dukes of Szczecin.
COSMONAUTS OF INNER SPACE
(June 2018 Athens- Brusses- Tokyo)
features international artists, scientists and researchers, covering a wide media spectrum, including Interactive Installations, Artificial Intelligence, Painting, Sculpture and more. The show wishes to explore and discuss all the viewpoints and approaches of the internal travel in any way the artists seem fit, as for example in relation to biology, philosophy, psychology, sociology and technology.
The movie "Fantastic Voyage" (1966) inspired each artist to develop their own idea of what constitutes “internal space” without the limitation of an a priori narrow distinction. Spyros Verykios (artist and curator of the show) acknowledges that this perception differs from one another and gave the artists the liberty to interpret this idea in relation to their own problematic and field of research.
