SPYROS KOTSALAS captures the raw, bold beauty of the Greek landscape and the nonchalant, everyday details of Athenian life. His oil paintings are odes to the quintessential colour harmonies of Greece, while his small gouache portraits capture the essence of the character of his sitters – the angles and contours of their features sculpturally rendered. … Continue reading
PRESENTING avant-garde contemporary art in the most sumptuous of historic buildings, creates an interesting visual oxymoron, for example: between strict, stark cryptic conceptual creativity and an elaborate, eclectic colonial spirit as evident in the neoclassically inspired Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art’s Stathatos Mansion. Here, you’ll find the ‘DESTE Prize: An Anniversary Exhibition, 1999-2015’ being hosted, … Continue reading
CONCEPTUALLY AND AESTHETICALLY speaking, there’s a vast ocean between Chryssa Verghi’s magical, dark, sea paintings with specks of pink, and Olga Migliaressi-Phoca’s 3-dimensional art, which criticizes contemporary consumer society by playing with brands such as Toblerone. But that’s the beauty of contemporary art – its variety – which you can experience these days at Art … Continue reading
‘The Spirit of Ecstasy’, was one of the first works you encountered at the Benaki Museum’s ‘Art Nouveau’ exhibition. This small, silver figurine resembles a more modern, streamlined version of the ancient statue ‘Nike of Samothrace’ (in the Louvre). Created by Charles Robert Sykes in 1911, it adorns the bonnets of all Rolls-Royces. It is also … Continue reading
IN THE HEART OF ATHENS, that is becoming all the more multicultural with the progress of time, the exhibition ‘ex-pats’ at the Alex Mylona Museum, curated by Apostolis Artinos, and featuring works by Eleni Mylonas and Despina Meimaroglou, explores the whole notion of what it means to leave your homeland, to travel, to return, and … Continue reading
Ok, I admit it… I’m all ‘documented out’. Total documenta overload in fact. So, I’ll keep this short (to the delight of most people I’m sure), and focus merely on a few of the 18 artists at the Benaki Pireos venue of documenta 14, where the first person you will come across is Eva Braun … Continue reading
WHERE TO START? I had to visit the National Museum of Contemporary Art (or EMST), twice in order peruse the works of around 80 artists that have taken over this museum – the main venue of documenta 14 in Athens. This is a show dense both in terms of the many meanings/philosophies and messages it … Continue reading
