Summer art exhibitions outside Athens
Mid-June is usually when the art gallery season in Athens comes to a gradual close and the visual arts scene shifts outside the city. Hydra is one of the most happening islands in terms of art exhibitions and the island’s proximity to Athens makes it a convenient destination. At the beginning of July, a group show under the title «The Simple Life» opens at the Junior High School of Hydra. Artist Dimitris Antonitsis, who is the show’s curator, has been organizing a contemporary art exhibition on Hydra each summer for the past several years and has brought some of the latest names on the international contemporary art scene to the attention of the Greek public. Michael Bevilacqua, David Casini and Eve Sussman (an American artist who has actually filmed a part of «The Rape of the Sabine Women» – a video work currently in the making in parts of Greece – on Hydra) will be some of the names to appear in this year’s exhibition, whose theme revolves around different and, in some cases, contrasting lifestyles. Also on Hydra, nine contemporary Greek artists will be exhibiting the work that grew out of a two-year-long group project initiated by artist Niki Kanagini. The project revolved around sensitizing the community of Hydra to a minority group, the residents of the island’s old people’s home. Each artist has produced two works (one by each artist will be donated to the house). They are all on display at the Hydra Historical Archives – Hydra Museum through the end of August. Andros is another important spot on the summer art exhibition map. The Basil and Elise Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art is organizing the highlight of this summer’s art exhibitions. Following the Picasso exhibition last year, the museum has this year come up with a group exhibition on British art from the 1960s (running June 25 to Sept. 25). Bridget Riley, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Anthony Caro and Philip King are among the artists represented in the show. Also on Andros, the Petros and Marika Kydonieos Foundation is hosting a group exhibition of contemporary Greek figurative artists. Curator Athina Schina has selected the work of six artists (Anna-Maria Tsakali, Maria Philopoulou, Irini Iliopoulou, Alexis Veroukas, Stefanos Daskalakis and Edouardos Sakayan) to explore realism in Greek art (July 23 – Sept. 30). In Rhodes, at the Auberge de France at the heart of the island’s Old Town, «Meteques» will explore the position of artists working in a foreign country through the work of 12 international and Greek artists. The exhibition is organized by Femme – Art – Mediterranee (FAM) and curated by Marina Athanassiadou (June 24 – July 24). At the Rethymnon Contemporary Art Center in Crete, the one-man show by well-known Greek sculptor Giorgos Lappas continues through the summer. Also in Crete, in the area of Aghios Nikolaos and in an art space that is part of the St Nicholas Bay exclusive hotel complex, curator Iris Kritikou is organizing a group art exhibition on the theme of «Aquarium.» Works by 34 Greek artists – mostly painters – especially made for the exhibition and many on the theme of water, will be arranged to evoke the feeling of an aquarium (July 9 – Oct. 30). Kritikou is also curating an exhibition on the island of Tinos, at the House of Exhibitions in the village of Falatados. A number of mostly Greek artists have been asked to produce works that celebrate the work of the great Greek sculptor Yiannoulis Halepas, an artist who lived and worked on Tinos and whose home now houses one of the island’s museums. The contemporary art exhibition is a tribute to Halepas and a reminder of the artist’s contribution to the development of sculpture in Greece (July 30 – Sept. 30).
