loading icon

In(de)finite Selfhoods

In(de)finite
Selfhoods
Group exhibition
June 4 - July 18, 2022
Poros

Chiderah Bosah Samuel
Panos Charalampous
Léllé Demertzi
Nicole Economides
Panos Famelis
Courage K. Hunke
Cédric Kouamé
Alekos Kyrarinis
Ebenezer Nana Bruce
Dessislava Terzieva
Adonis Volanakis
Emmanuel Kwaku Yaro

The swift progress of technology as a trademark of our time has gone beyond facilitating communication to a de facto abolishment of borders and the annihilation of distances. Ideas, people and goods, tangible or intangible, travel freely and bring closer together all of humankind's aspects and traditions.

At the other end of this leveling -globalizing- development, individual places put up their defense. They act variously with resistance in an attempt to preserve traditions, identities and the systems of values which have marked and determined the major or latent histories of each region.

It is this spirit, this differentiated view of the world that CITRONNE Gallery wishes to showcase. The exhibition "Proximities and Distances" brings onto the artistic scene a multiple reading of the world. The continents are distinct but come together in the context of art—which, in any case, transcends by definition the perceptible world.

In the works on show visitors can observe these 'local' viewpoints. The works span within a broad spectrum, from a figurative to an abstractive approach to History and its interpretation. The selective images of the artists feature the memories of place, either as origins and distant references or as continuous experiences.

The curator of the show L. Demertzi notes “Uniting the local and the global, identity emerges as a palimpsest of both worlds, inhabiting their in-between space. It is proposed that identity is constantly in flux, shaping and being shaped by our positioning within the world. Aspiring to decipher the realms of our contemporary “glocal” collectivity, the exhibition assembles artworks in a variety of media spanning from painting to photography and installations, emphasizes on the resonances of experience, and celebrates the divergences and dissents of different cultures, geographical locations, singularities, and artistic practices.

The coexistence of these works does not necessarily create a synthesis. What it does generate is the strong and clear impression of a world in which the artistic gaze has the license and the power to synthesize the present without betraying the past; to unify space without erasing its special character.

Artworks

Epigrafomena

Panos
Charalampous
Epigrafomena
May 27 - October 31, 2022
Archaeological Museum of Poros
View artist's page

This year’s cooperation of CITRONNE Gallery with the Archaeological Museum of Poros focuses on and refers to the memory of the in-scription, through the eyes of artist Panos Charalambous. Throughout the centuries, in-scriptions have always constituted a solid reflection of personal and collective human memory; from the written laws of the Republic, the epitaphs and the votive offerings to the Oracles of Classical Antiquity to medal engraving and the names on tombstones of our era.

Artist Panos Charalambous uses tobacco leaves as his engraving surface. This fragile raw material, in sheer contrast with the resilient materials of the Antiquity, produces inscriptions which are fluid, fleeting, perishable and stillborn. The current reality does not leave much room for permanence and eternity as regards speech – the same applies to the persons inscribed. The ever-quickening pace of history is not subject to permanent references. Thus, the inscriptions on the tobacco leaves are devoid of longevity and act in a mandatory and temporary topicality.

At the same time, however, perhaps as a counterweight, the artist reminds us of the continuation, the durability: he makes an intentional reference to the traditional cultivation of tobacco and its products, which have left their cultural mark on the everyday life of not just the Greeks.
"Inscriptions" generate a functional archive of our memory and of the ephemerality of our era, whose elements look more like "words in the wind" than "a possession for all time”.

Tatiana Spinari-Pollalis
Ph.D. (Art History) - Citronne Gallery, Director

This year, Panos Charalambous’ temporary exhibition entitled “Inscriptions” (or Epigrafomena) is hosted at the Archaeological Museum of Poros in the context of the events organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports for International Museum Day. This exhibition, organized in association with Citronne Gallery, comprises a group of artworks which feature writing elements on surfaces made of tobacco leaves.
The names of prominent people, mainly artists and writers, have been inscribed on a delicate plant matter, namely a substrate of tobacco, as a reference to the perishability of the earthly world. Charalambous’ works are exhibited in contrast with the ancient inscriptions on display at the Museum of Poros, which, in turn, feature the names of people who claim their place in an illusion of eternity through their tombstones, their votive offerings to the gods or as benefactors honoured by their city. Nonetheless, while those people of the Antiquity chose to carve their names on solid stone surfaces which remained unchanged over time, in the works of Charalambous, the importance of key exponents of modern culture is valued on ephemeral organic materials and is measured against the fragility of human nature.

Maria Giannopoulou Ph.D. (Archaeology) - Ephorate of Antiquities of Piraeus and the Islands

Artworks

To Her

Vana
Xenou
To Her
May 10 - June 10, 2022
Athens
View artist's page

“The twentieth century, more than any other, liberated the perception of both sexes as regards the gender and the body. It examined their identity against the female - male polarity and its role should not be dissociated from the very Nature of Art” - Vana Xenou

The artistic trajectory of Vana Xenou pursues the female presence. Taking the female nature as their starting point, her works move about through history. The artist goes deep into forms and symbols that have left an indelible mark on historical memory and social subconscious. She shapes the female archetypal figure, as is the case with the primordial Gaia-goddess in the depths of religious consciousness. She watches the different faces or masks, as they have been shaped by imagination and defined by the “adventure” of the antiquity and the “destruction” of tragic drama.

Her figures sometimes project the archetypal Mother-Daughter image and sometimes, just like young girls, they hint at or even foretell their transition to female maturity. The little girls in Lewis Carroll's photos put this child-woman duality on display. At the big table with the deities of the earth, viewers get the feeling that they are witnessing transformations of the original model which is perhaps found in the depths of the earth - where the occult and dark Eleusinian Mysteries used to take place.

Vana Xenou seeks the truth that is hidden in the body —naked or not— through myth and history, the course and the experience of women through the centuries. It is the large frieze with the lined-up bodies, which, most likely, is a reference to the friezes of ancient Greek temples.

From Demeter and Persephone of the Eleusinian myth to Eve of the book of Genesis, from Judith of the painting Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi to Lucretia by Lucas Cranach and to Hildegard of Bingen, Vana Xenou introduces us to the depths and the mystery of an ever-transforming identity.

Artworks

Union

Varvara
Liakonakou
Union
February 24 - April 2, 2022
Athens
View artist's page

The curator of the exhibition, Elisabeth Plessa states: "On several canvases of the past five years, Liakounakou uses only oil pastels, which she applies on her papers like an ink pen, to create storms of lines conversing with the white of the paper as they shape what is depicted. In these works, quests for transparency, everything is regulated by the highlights that penetrate the grids of the lines. Even black functions differently in these recent compositions, bringing out the light instead of the darkness. Outlines lose their clarity and colors abandon their intensity for the sake of a glow that imbues these sense picture with a sense of sanctity."

The painter Varvara Liakonakou reports that in this exhibition entitled "Union" she concerned with the subject of love and romance. Influenced by the poetry and philosophy of Gelalandin Rumi (1207-1273), the greatest Sufi mystic poet of the East, she exhibits works by couples and solitary figures seeking union through self-exploration.

Artworks

Internal Space

Margarita
Mavromichalis
Internal Space
November 30 - February 19, 2022
Athens
View artist's page

Margarita Mavromichalis presents a series of 19 photographs taken between 2019 and 2021. She attempts to show an ‘inner’ reality through deliberate, careful stagings within a bourgeois home. That reality emerges as a consequence of the general confinement imposed by the pandemic. Isolation from the outside world, reversal of conditions, and the subsequent lack of communication result in an inward turn – whether it’s the ‘closed’ safety of the private home or a more profound introversion.

"If a photograph says more about the photographer than the subject itself, then every image taken is a self-portrait. But an actual self-portrait of the artist is not just a revelation of who the artist is, the image strips the artist down to the bone, making him feel naked to the eyes of the public, exposing him and leaving him more vulnerable than ever." Margarita Mavromichalis

"Margarita Mavromichalis’ photographs result from a directed and staged observation of her own image, self-portraits that document her active participation in their creation. And when, at times, she veers dangerously close to fashion photography, without that being her intention, the artist’s caustic humour and a surreal sense of the unexpected prevail, creating a particularly fertile tension between the content and the stylisation of the image." Curator Elizabeth Plessa

Artworks

INSIGHT

Yiannis
Adamakos
INSIGHT
September 30 - November 27, 2021
Athens
View artist's page

“I am searching for the magic of the darkness, the shadows, the misty and the obscure. A hidden beauty, faint as in a dream.” Yiannis Adamakos

The artist chose the term INSIGHT to describe the artworks he produced between 2019 and 2021 collectively and as a total. This series comprises works on paper and canvas created in parallel and share a common artistic approach. They complement each other and differ solely in size and material. The exhibition held in CITRONNE gallery features drawings on paper made exclusively with graphite pencil. The works are not studies on other larger ones. They constitute independent and, at the same time, integral parts of a broader series.

Yiannis Adamakos is a profoundly reflective, and insightful artist. He observes; but, at the same time, he adopts an abstract approach. He dreams; but, at the same time, he resorts to geometry. He documents; but, at the same time, he foresees. This solitary procedure integrates experiences turned into images and the ensuing emotion. The painter turns to his personal inner codes in order to filter, process and, ultimately, to transform reality. The formidably balanced synthesis, a composition of thesis and anti-thesis, provides a reflection of the perceived and sensuous impact of the outer world.

His works are not level. The graphite pencil actually engraves on paper and gives tonality and textures. Light and darkness –two opposing impressions– add volume, perspective, depth and three-dimensionality. Surfaces increase and decrease, they fluctuate, just like our breath. Depending on the pressure applied by the artist while using the graphite pencil on the paper, the white-black composition becomes layered; alternating tonalities emerge and create a peculiar sense of colour. Adamakos treats the surface with targeted incisions, a technique which modifies texture and adds depth and perspective.

The starting point for almost all of Yiannis Adamakos’ works is a landscape. However, this landscape cannot be positioned or delimited. It does not evoke a specific or identifiable locus because it is stripped of all elements of topicality and reformulates itself in a fusion of imagination, dream -like reminiscing, past experiences and, predominantly, alternating emotions. The purpose is not the mere rendering of the natural environment. Instead, it is all about the shadow, the imaginary existence. The artist appropriates landscape on his own terms.

Artworks

Citronne Galleries