About the artists

Nikos Alexiou was born in 1960, in Rethymno (Crete). He studied at the Akademie der Bildeden Kunste in Vienna and then at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He creates installations using lace-shaped geometrical constructions out of cane and paper, which create volatile, poetic spaces, often with symbolic allusions. His art includes references to tradition or historical past, with an impressive array of mediums, ranging from delicate, handmade constructions to advanced technologies.

Since 2003, he intensely studied themes and motifs from the Holy Monastery of Iviron in Mount Athos, which he often visited. He manages to express the element of mysticism and the wealth of religious architecture, through complex mediums, but also in a spirit of contemplation and reflection.

He represented Greece in the 23rd Alexandria Biennale (2005) and in the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007), with his much discussed work, The End; a large installation inspired by the mosaic of the Catholicon of the Monastery of Iviron. A summarized version of the artwork was shown simultaneously in Athens and Munich, by using digitally processed prints of the same mosaic. In 2010, St. Marcus Basilica and the homonymous square in Venice were presented in a similar manner, with large digital prints, as a second phase of the same journey.

Until his premature death in 2011 (Athens), his work had been presented in more than 15 solo exhibitions and in numerous group ones, in Greece and abroad.

Trained in the climate of Radical Architecture in Florence, Beppe Caturegli (1957) moved to Milan in 1982 to work with Ettore Sottsass, Memphis group and Terrazzo magazine. In 1987 he opened his studio together with Giovannella Formica (1957-2019). The passion for traveling led him to develop an anthropological approach to design culture using the dichotomy of mixed systems: industrial/crafts, global/local, mass-produced/one-off across a very heterogeneous work ranging from bio-architecture to unique rugs, from interiors to paintings, from industrial design to sculptures, from exhibitions curating to video-sketches. His works have been exhibited in galleries such as Design Gallery, Nilufar Gallery, Assab One, Antonia Jannone Gallery, George Sowden’ 44SPAZIO and in museums such as Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Mino Ceramic Art Museum Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Triennale di Milano etc.

Alekos Kyrarinis was born in 1976 in Athens and raised on the island of Tinos, the place of his origin. He worked with his father, Yiannis Kyrarinis, a sculptor in marble, from the age of eleven until 1997, when he was admitted to the Athens School of Fine Arts. At the School he studied at the studio of Jannis Psychopedis and graduated in 2003. He has illustrated the following books: Calendar of Group ALPHA 2003, Verifying the Night (Dimitris Angelis, Neos Astrolavos / Efthyni, Athens 2011), Encima del subsuelo /Above the subsoil (Kostas Vrachnos, limited edition, Athens 2012), issues 1,2,3 of the magazine “Nea Efthyne”, Drippings from the tiles (Monk Antonios Romaios, En Plo editions, Athens 2015), issue 1 of the magazine “Anthivola”. He collaborates with the magazine “Frear” and with the cultural space “Baumstrasse”. He has published an essay book about painting entitled “Nefeli’s questions”, Mikros Astrolavos /Efthyni, Athens 2011.His work has been shown in 16 solo exhibitions in Greece, Spain and Belgium. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, Romania, France and Spain. Alekos Kyrarinis is represented solely by CITRONNE Gallery.

Christina Mitrentse is a multidisciplinary artist, P.G.C.E educator and freelance curator who has lived in London for over 20 years. Concerned with esoteric qualities of cultural construction she uses manifold processes of drawing, screen-print, site-specific installation, vintage book-sculptures, collages, and conceptual appropriation to freely create new narratives and poetic ensembles of temporary idiosyncratic institutions i.e. schools, libraries, museums. Within the digitized environment, e-learning and anti-education Mitrentse is known for inventing an on-going Book Arts project initiative, entitled ‘’ Add To My Library’’ designed to provoke changes in the function of the material book, while de-institutionalising it in the process. A prolific systematic methodology entitled #BDF Bibliographic Data Flow, that compiles favorite book titles selected by international contributors each adding to an infinite, yet performative Meta-Library. ‘Akrokerama’ are a series of sculptural works made by handcrafted, handfolded and altered embroidery magazines, end papers, book covers and ephemeral material from her family collection that reference the handcrafted culture and architecture amongst other reference points. She has exhibited extensively, shown her works in 20 solo exhibitions and over 200 group shows in galleries, museums and public spaces including, the Tate Modern, The Royal Academy, ICA London, PIAF Art Fair, Brussels Art Fair, London Art Fair, Art Fair Rotterdam, Liverpool Biennial UK, XV Biennale de Mediterranea, 2nd Bodrum International Biennial Turkey, NDSM- Werf Amsterdam, MOMUS State Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum of Greece, Hackney Museum, Nadine Feront Gallery, Dalla Rosa Gallery, The Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Central Booking NY, The Centre for the Book Arts NY, San Francisco Centre for the Book, California, Drop -Hiroshima, Japan, Rise Berlin, Helsinki Contemporary Gallery. Her artworks can be found in major international private & public collections such as WWW foundation, MOCA London, Senate House, Book Arts UWE, LCC, (UAL), Women’s Art Library Goldsmiths University, The Feminist Library London, Book Art Centre NY, the National Library in Baghdad, Jewish Museum of Greece, Fine Art Society London, Greenwich Council, Sill Library Bath, Mol’s collection Holland, Tate Archive, Penguin Collectors Society, Griechische Kultustiftung Berlin, M. Altenman NY, Onassis Foundation, Alpha Bank, MOMUS Greece, Benaki Museum, MIET foundation, Venizelos Airport Athens. Her work has been profiled in publications such as The Word Is Art, Thames & Hudson, and “Unshelfmarked” Reconceiving the Artists’ Book.

Myrto Xanthopoulou was born in Helsinki in 1981. She lives and works in Athens. She studied fine arts at the Athens School of Fine Arts, and art history at Deree College. Her practice is characterized by the use of everyday materials, handicraft and text. Her works, weather they are installations, sculptures, drawings or video, attempt to articulate a poetic of the ordinary and the intimate, the unbearable and the light-hearted, of everyday trauma. In 2022 she presented her fifth solo show in Athens, titled Καταιγίδα (Δεν έχω στυλό)/Storm(I don’t have a pen), curated by Christophoros Marinos, and she has participated in various group exhibitions and projects in Greece and abroad, at museums, galleries and independent art spaces. In 2020 she received the SNF ARTWORKS fellowship. Notable exhibitions include: PORTALS (2021) at Neon Tobacco Factory curated by Elina Kountouri and Madeleine Grynsztejn, Collactenea (2020) at ACG Gallery curated by Christoforos Marinos, The Equilibrists (2016) at Benaki Museum curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Helga Christoffersen with Massimiliano Gioni, Reverb: New Art from Greece, Museum School of Fine Arts, Boston (2014) curated by Evita Tsokanta and Eirene Efstathiou, AFRESH at EMST Athens (2013) curated by D.Vitali, D. Dragona and T. Pandi.

Maria Ikonomopoulou was born in 1961 in Kalamata, Greece. After finishing her studies in Economics at the University of Athens she moved to The Netherlands to study Arts in 1985. First, she attended the Free Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague for two years. In 1991 she graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam from the Sculpture and Monumental Art department. She has realised commissioned pieces for the public space in The Netherlands and her autonomous work has been exposed systematically in Belgium, Greece and The Netherlands. Part of it is included in the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, Museum Meermanno in The Hague, public institutions in The Netherlands and numerous private collections in Europe. Maria Ikonomopoulou is based in Rotterdam.

Nina Papaconstantinou was born in Athens, Greece in 1968. She studied Greek Literature in Athens and Visual Arts in Camberwell College of Arts, London. In 2015 she was artist-in-residence at the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies in Princeton. Her work is mainly an investigation of the relationship between text and its image, as well as drawing as a system of marks, tracings and imprints. She has presented her work in several group and personal exhibitions in Greece and abroad, such as: Phantoms (solo show), Athens Municipal Art Gallery, 2022, Home (duo show with Kostas Bassanos), Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, Athens, 2020, Haft Paykar/Seven Beauties, Mohsen gallery, Tehran, Iran, 2019, After Babel, AnnexM, Athens Concert Hall, 2019, Under/erasure, Pierogi gallery, New York, 2019, Multitudinous Seas, Fondation Hippocrène, Paris, 2018, Antidoron -documenta 14 Fridericianum, Kassel, 2017, Typo (solo show) Kalfayan gallery, 2016, Quieter in Every Phrase (solo show), Martine Aboucaya gallery, Paris, 2014, Drawing Time, Reading Time, The Drawing Center, New York, 2013, Instead of Writing (solo show), National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) Athens, 2011, Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennial, 2009, etc. Her works can be found in private collections, as well as collections of institutes and museums in Greece and abroad, such as the Bank of Greece, National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), MOMus, Arter etc.

Nikos Podias was born in 1974 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1999, where he studied painting and scenography. In 2001 as a fellow of the Onasis Foundation he completed his postgraduate studies at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and Hochchule fur Gestaltung und Kunst in Zurich. His works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions. Lives and works in Athens, Greece.

Efi Spyrou talks about the progressive movement from the particularity of personal narrative to the universality of collective memory. Employing the means of sculpture, drawing, film and photo-performance, her artistic practice engages in a simultaneously sensitive and caustic socio-political commentary. Her artwork has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Εurope, including Efi’s recent solo exhibition “METAMORPHOSES” at the Greek pavilion, EXPO 2020 Dubai, in the framework of the event “A Universal Narrative of Light’ From Apollo’s birthplace, Delos, to a brighter future”, organized by the Office of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, “MY FINEST FABULOUS AND AMAZING MATH BOOK” at Greenwich University, LFA, London, “BLACK GOLD FLAKES” at A.G. Leventis Gallery, Nicosia, and the city secret performance “ART SCENE CRIME SOON”, in different cities in Greece and Cyprus. She has recently been awarded for her artwork with the “PPC MEETS ART” Award, 2022 and the “175th Anniversary of National Bank of Greece” Award, by the National Bank of Greece, 2017. She has an extensive experience in the fashion and media industry. She has served as Goodwill Ambassador for public interest campaigns in Europe and US, including the recent campaign for the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. Her short films “Identity in Between” and “Womanifesto” has been selected and honored by film festivals AVIFF Cannes 2022-Art film festival, Cannes; VAEFF 2021-Video Art and Experimental Film Festival, New York and On Art 2023 film festival, Poland. She is the communication and artistic director of Block722 architects+ and founder and creative director of the non-profit art initiative RUNONART.

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.

Thalia Chioti is a visual artist. She studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (N. Kessanlis’ workshop). She completed her MA in Digital Arts at ASFA in 2012. In 1994 she was awarded by Yannis and Zoe Spyropoulos Foundation and in 1996 she received a fellowship from the State Scholarship Foundation (IKY)and attended classes in the engraving workshop at the Facultad de Bellas Artes in Madrid for one semester under the Erasmus program. She lives and works in Athens.

About the exhibition