Gagosian, 22 Anapiron Polemou Street, Athina 115 21, Greece
Gagosian’s new space in Athens opens with work by American artist Brice Marden. The show is focused primarily on paintings made since the 1980s on pieces of salvaged marble, found on the idyllic island of Hydra, where the artist has lived and worked since the 1970s. Review by William Summerfield
Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Dionysiou Areopagitou, Athina 105 55, Greece
Oh, it feels good to be back looking at art. Standing in the open air of this historic site, Dionisis Kavallieratos’s ‘Disoriented Dance / Misled Planet’ feels like exactly the right show to be seeing at this moment. It’s playful, gentle on the mind and easy on the eye, contemporary, but riffing on ancient themes, challenging, but not too much so. Review by William Summerfield
CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery, Panagiotou Anagnostopoulou 42, Athina 106 73, Greece
In this extraordinary show, CAN Gallery focuses on paintings of men from the 1980s and 90s by Greek artist Celia Daskopoulou. Like many avant-garde Greek artists Daskopoulou left her conservative native country to study in Paris in the 1960s, returning to Athens in the 1970s where she developed her mature style. This largely focused on heavily stylised portraits of women that satirised traditional female depiction and roles in society. Review by William Summerfield
Museum of Cycladic Art, Neofitou Douka 4, Athens 106 74, Greece
I’ve never seen Lynda Benglis’s work look more relevant than scattered around an opulent Neo-Classical mansion in the shadow of the Acropolis. The Stathatos Mansion is a slave to taste and style, determinedly emulating the great villas of the past, and Benglis’s sculpture is its total opposite. It’s bold, it’s bombastic, even vulgar at times, and unlike Neo-Classicism, never conventional, not even for a second. Review by William Summerfield
Aeschylia Festival 2017, Eleusis, Athens
The major installation work, Upon the earth and under the clouds, by Greek artist Danae Stratou at the site of the Old Oil Mill in Eleusis, a major industrial town 11 miles northwest of central Athens which will be the European Capital of Culture 2021, takes visitors on a journey of multiple dimensions. Heavily charged by its ancient past revolving around the practices of Eleusinian Mysteries, a series of significant yet secret rituals and ceremonies known all across the ancient Greek and Roman world, the small town triggered the artist’s imagination and played host to a distinctive visual vocabulary. Review by Dr Kostas Prapoglou
Athens, Greece
Documenta 14: 'Learning from Athens' promised to address some of the current social and political issues facing Europe today by questioning its foundations: colonialism, patriarchy, gender-normativity and capitalism. Yet many feared that the exhibition tried to glamorise the ‘Greek crisis’ and capitalise on what is a very complex and difficult social and economic situation. What’s in it for Athens? Review by Anaïs Castro
