New art gallery in the capital plans for the future
A recent arrival on the art gallery scene of Athens breathes fresh air into the field and makes its start with clear objectives and creative plans for the future. Qbox, the name of the venue that opened just yesterday on the lower level of a building in the Kolonaki area, is run by two driven young people: Myrtia Nikolakopoulou and Panayiotis Mavridis, who is also an artist. Probably the youngest gallerists in the city, Nikolakopoulou and Mavridis are making their debut in a competitive field and trying their luck in an art market that is growing with the emergence of new collectors and the proliferation of new galleries in recent years. Is there enough demand for contemporary art? How commercially viable can a new gallery be? Nikolakopoulou’s answer shows the enthusiasm of a young gallerist, her commitment to art and the sheer pleasure that she derives from bringing people into contact with art. One of her objectives is to try and create the incentive for more people to become collectors or to occasionally buy art. Clearly, the existing collectors are not enough to support the offerings made available by all the new galleries and the fact that many art collectors are increasingly turning to foreign art fairs detracts further from the power of the local art market. One way of attracting a new audience, especially an audience that is not accustomed to frequenting art galleries, is, according to Nikolakopoulou, organizing larger exhibitions in cooperation with other venues. Qbox will hold such large projects, many of them non-commercial, in the hope of bringing more people into contact with contemporary art. Another way of opening up art to a larger audience is to keep prices at a relatively reasonable level. Nikolakopoulou says that besides the regular collectors or standard art buyers, she would like to make art accessible to people of less financial means, to young people and artists. Qbox’s opening group exhibition is intended to draw a symbolic connotation about how art is a group effort and involves people of different fields coming together. «Transitions,» the title of the present exhibition, showcases the work of artists Alexis Avlamis, Pavlina Verouki, Rika Krithara, Panayiotis Lambrou and Ioanna Mirka. Future exhibitions will focus on the work of young artists but will also include the presentation of work by established artists, sometimes in cooperation with larger venues. Nikolakopoulou also says that one of the gallery’s objectives is to showcase the art of many different media. Engravings, for example, is the the medium to be highlighted by the next show. Other plans include inviting curators and art historians to organize exhibitions. Nikolakopoulou herself comes from a theoretical background in art: The daughter of a painter, she studied French literature and then went to London to study art criticism. Upon her return to Greece, she became involved with organizing large art events and exhibitions, among them Art Athina, Outlook, the Biennale of Young Artists and the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Exposure in the field gradually led to the idea of opening her own art gallery. As the gallery’s name suggests, Qbox is about posing questions and providing new challenges. It is about helping to build a new dynamic in the field and creating more opportunities both for artists and collectors. «Transitions,» at Qbox (8 Alexandrou Soutzou, 210.362.8791), through April 9.
