About the artists

Chiderah Bosah Samuel (b.2000) is a self taught contemporary visual artist whose flair for art incepted at a very tender age of replicating -with pencil on paper- any visual figures he found in books and comics. This early and random interest in art eventually metamorphosed into a full-fledged career for this Port-Harcourt based Nigerian visual artist. Growing up in Africa, and with the common narrative incumbent on a typical black person, Bosah had always wanted to communicate these everyday experiences- the struggles and blessings- from his own standpoint. He uses art as an outlet not only to express himself but also to becocome a voice of the people. Currently exploring the medium of oil on canvas, his genre of art spans across figurative representation, simplified realism and portraiture, employing them as a means to mostly depict the resilient lives of Africans in the motherland. The singularity in Chiderah’s style of painting is the pronounced use of calm and pale hues to consummate his peculiar niche. Chiderah Bosah’s works have been exhibited in some major fairs across Africa, Europe and the United States.

Panos Charalampous (b.1956) is an artist living and working in Athens. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens under Nikos Kessanlis. He has participated in international exhibitions, including: 58th Biennale Arte, Venice, 2019 / Voice-o-graph & Flatus Vocis, documenta14, Athens and Kassel, 2017 / Genii Loci. Greek art from 1930 since today, Saint Petersburg, 2016 / White House Biennial, Varna, 2016 / Breakthrough, ARCO, Madrid, 2004 / Eidos, Besançon, 2004 / Copenhagen – European Capital of Culture, 1996 / Ogrody, Poznań, 1996 / Kunst-Europa, Visual European Landscape, Berlin, 1991 / Glasgow – European Capital of Culture, 1990 / Οut of limits, Poznan, 1990 / 3rd Biennale of Young Artists from Mediterranean Europe, Barcelona, 1987. Some of his notable solo shows include: Αquis submersus, Athens, 2014-15 / Tobacco Area, 1986 – 2011, Athens, 2011 / Voice-O-Graph, Athens, 2006-2007 / Phonopolis, Athens, 2003-2004 / Psychagogia II, Athens, 2001 / 1496–2000 / como humo se va, Athens, 1999-2000 / Psychagogia I (Recreation), Athens & Thessaloniki, 1997 / ΙΧΘΥΣ, Athens, 1995 / Concerning fishing, Athens, 1992 / Τobacco story, Βerlin,1991, Athens,1990,1988.

Léllé Demertzi (b.1993) graduated from the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens in 2017. She also studied acting at the Athens Conservatory Drama School. She completed the MA Raumstrategien (Spatial Strategies) at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee in July 2019. In September 2020, she completed a 12-Month Internship at the International Program of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 2020 she was awarded the ARTWORKS Fellowship for Visual Arts, funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. She has presented her work (performance, video, installation, photomontage) in solo and group exhibitions in Athens, Berlin, Zurich and Luzern, Salzburg, Accra, and New York. She is part of the artist duo “Reservoir Peacocks”, advocating for unapologetic female empowerment. Recurring matters in her artistic practice which begins from the research of the body, are identity, displacement and the need for belongingness, the ‘self’ and ‘the other’, the in-between spaces, language and silence, memory, presence and absence, as well as the scars and the stars in the digital era.

Nicole Economides (b. 1992) is an artist and independent curator based in Athens and New York. She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons, The New School and a BFA from the Department of Fine Arts and Art Sciences at the University of Ioannina (2015). Economides is a recipient of the Gerondelis Foundation Scholarship, the Elizabeth Greenshields Grant for Painters and the IBM Grant for Artists in New Media. Her work has been shown in exhibitions in Greece such as Faces of a Hero, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) & Lincoln Center, New York City & Athens, Back to Athens 7, Cheapart (2020), and Inspire: Effective Spaces, the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA) (2015). She has participated in multiple group shows in New York such as Life-Giving Art: 9 Women Artists of the Diaspora, CUNY (2020) and Beneath Them Was Forever, Westbeth Gallery (2019). She was an artist in residence at the Agora Collective, Berlin in late 2016. She has participated as a guest juror for the 2022 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. The artist also maintains a collaborative practice with Natalia Almonte, Paradoxluxe, a collective that critically engages the reductive perceptions of Greece and Puerto Rico. They co-curated the exhibition, We Are Here To Serve You (2020) at the Arnold & Sheila Aronson Galleries in Manhattan, that is traveling to Pública: in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2022). She also co-curated the group exhibition What Is Real? with Natalia Almonte and Tunie Betesh which was on view at The Real House in Brooklyn, NY in 2021.

Panos Famelis (b. 1979) is an artist and independent curator living and working in Athens, on various media ranging from painting, sculpture, drawing, installations, performances and theater. He is the founding member of Under Construction group. He has curated solo and group exhibitions, including: ‘’A letter to Esme’’ & ‘’No Land’’ Two Women Solo Show (Crux Gallery Athens), “Grounded”, Re-Culture Festival, “Coney Island” ( Ersi’s Gallery), “Art is hard”, Festival, Athens – Thessaloniki, “Black Jack 21 artists” (Rhodes Casino) and “Oasis” (Skironion Museum, Athens). He had solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, his work is included in museums and private collections.

Courage K. Hunke (b.2000) is a contemporary experimental artist who resides in Ashaiman, Tema. His practices involve the use of acrylic on canvas as well as graphite. He is a member of the Artemartis collective based in Accra, Ghana. His works were recently exhibited at the “Birds of a Feather” exhibition, a collaboration between Phillips Auction House and Artemartis in London. His art is influenced by the stories of everyday Ghanaian women and children.

Cédric Kouamé (b.1992) is a multimedia artist, DJ and radio host (also known as African Diplomat) born in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. He holds a certificate in Communication and has studied performance and installation in Brussels. He was also trained at the project space Klaym in Abidjan, where he was mentored by photographers Joana Choumali and Flurina Rothenberger. Additionally, he’s done several residencies and workshops with sculptors Kafana Soro and Daniel Bamigbadé. Currently living and working between Brussels and Abidjan, he divides his practice between sculpture, photography and performative activations. His photographic work consists of street portraiture, architecture photography – mostly shot on 35mm films – and a collection of damaged positives and negatives, which he started in 2012. Most of those pictures are reflecting the clash between vernacular and modernism, the impact of this clash on the Ivorian social environment and the idea that a photo even damaged will always retract an emotion or a story to its owner.

Alekos Kyrarinis (b. 1976) was raised on the island of Tinos, the place of his origin. He worked with his father, Yiannis kyrarinis, who was a sculptor in marble, from the age of eleven until he entered the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1997. He studied there between 1997 and 2003, in the studios of Dimitris Mytaras and Yiannis Psychopedis. He has illustrated the books: “Alpha Group Calendar 2003”, “Verifying the night», “Encima del subsuelo / Above the subsoil”, “Drip from the tiles” and the Issues No 1, 2 and 3 of the magazine “New Responsibility”. He collaborates with the magazine “Shaft” and the cultural space “Baumstrasse”. He has published a short essay book about painting entitled “Questions to Nefeli” from Nefeli publications, Athens, 2011. He has had solo and group exhibitions in Athens, Tinos, Poros, Barcelona and Brussels. He lives and works in Athens.

Ebenezer Nana Bruce (b. 1988) is a figurative and portrait painter who lives and works in Accra, Ghana. After graduating from Ghanatta College of Art and Design in 2012, he has been practicing as a full-time artist, experimenting with tools and materials, and investigating, researching and experiencing the life behind the spirited crowds and individuals around him. By doing so, he unearths the latest trends in his country, identifies the topics he would like to address, and paints a picture of contemporary Ghanaian society. As an artist he feels he has a vast responsibility to culture and society: to uplift his country through his medium by creating awareness of situational circumstances, by addressing issues that impact us all and by provoking questions that lead discussions around solutions. Ultimately, Nana Bruce offers the observer an inside look of the society through his eyes, both as an artist and a citizen. On the canvas, he applies thick strokes of acrylic paint in an impressionist technique to visualize his narrative.

Dessislava Terzieva (b. 1989, Sofia) is a Bulgarian-American contemporary artist based between Detroit and Sofia. She earned a BA in Political Science from Oakland University and an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2021 where she won the Museum Purchase Award and her work was accessioned into the permanent collection of Cranbrook Art Museum. Before attending Cranbrook, Terzieva made a name for herself as a prominent figure in the Detroit art scene, exhibiting in off-site locations, curating independent art spaces, and executing interactive and immersive installations in the public sphere. She has exhibited in the United States and internationally, including: ART-O-RAMA in Marseille, France; KO-OP in Sofia, Bulgaria; College for Creative Studies Center Gallery in Detroit, Michigan; Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Ohio; Aether Haha in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Huron Art Space in San Francisco, California; Mönchskirche in Salzwedel, Germany, Guck mal Günther, Kunst in Lenzburg, Switzerland, International Biennale of Santorini in Santorini, Greece; Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She has been awarded a residency at Hestia (Serbia), Bedstuy Art Residency (New York), Atelierhaus Hilmsen (Germany), and World of Co (Bulgaria). In 2021, she founded FIDANA Foundation, a non-profit organization facilitating contemporary art and interventions in public spaces using pre-existing infrastructure.

Adonis Volanakis (b. 1976) studied/ researched in Wimbledon School of Art, Central Saint Martins, Aalto University, University of Athens and New York University. His visual practice is a collaborative amalgam of fine and performing arts, human relationships and aesthetics, poetry and politics. Since 2003 his work focuses in herstories and since 2006 he facilitates blind date, a togethering collaborative platform. Adonis creates installations, exhibitions, community based public art projects and performances: USA (Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, Dixon’s Place, Kimmel Galleries, etc.), in UK (Royal Opera House-Covent Garden, National Theatre, etc.), in Switzerland (Archeological Museum/ Basel, Kaskadenkondensator); in Georgia (History Museum of Tbilisi); in Greece (DOCUMENTA 14, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art, European Cultural Centre of Delphi, Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, National Theatre, Greek National Opera, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Benaki Museum, Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens Biennial) and in France, Canada, Finland, Czech Republic etc. Creating safe spaces for exchange and creativity is part of Adonis’ artistic practice and since 2005 he has being teaching and/or researching nonstop in universities in Greece, France, USA. Currently is an Assistant Professor at Cyprus University of Technology. Foundations that support his work Fulbright, Onassis, London Institute, Arts and Humanities Research Board/UK, B&E Goulandris, Propondis and Leventis.

Emmanuel Kwaku Yaro (b. 1995) is a Ghanaian contemporary artist who resides in Labadi, Accra. He has been a practicing artist for over six years and has a number of group exhibitions to his name, working with notable institutions including Alliance Française d’Accra. Yaro has also had a solo exhibition in the African Regent Hotel in Accra which also resulted in growth in the interest in his works, both locally and internationally. He has also been involved in a number of group exhibitions with Efie Gallery in Dubai and Phillips Auction House in London. He is a member of the Artemartis collective in Accra. Inspired by a range of artists like Georges Seurat, Marie-Guillemine Benoist and Sami Bentil, Yaro‘s research and development practices go beyond the limitation of his five senses, and his works are a testament to his passion for detail.

About the exhibition