Ismene King, Yioryios Papayioryiou, Natalia Astraea, Konstantinos Giotis, Kostis Velonis, Despina Charitonidi w/ Niki, Danai Chania
Baraka Art Space is pleased to launch the first group show of the exhibition program of 2023, entitled "Baraka Ab ovo", commissioned to curator Faidra Vasileiadou to design three different exhibitions for this summer on the island of Spetses.
“Baraka Ab ovo” consists of three chapters translated into three contemporary art exhibitions during the summer months, with the aim of navigating the concept of emergence and rebirth.
For designing the concept of “Baraka Ab ovo”, the curator quotes the Latin phrase Ab ovo which literally means “from the egg, from the beginning”. According to Greek mythology, it refers to one of the twin eggs from which the Helen of Troy was born, when Zeus had transformed into a swan to mate with Leda.
The first group show that activates the exhibition cycle of "Baraka Ab ovo", has the title "Chapter One: Exordium".
As the main narrative centers around themes of change and rejuvenation, the curator connects the word Exordium with its Latin origin – a warp placed on a loom before the web is begun – with the more contemporary term of a prologue to a new beginning.
“Chapter One: Exordium” is an immersive art exhibition that explores the theme of emerging and rebirth through various artistic mediums and styles. The exhibition aims to showcase the transformative power of art and its ability to inspire new beginnings, growth, and resilience.
Konstantinos Giotis (b.1988) lives and works in Athens. He studied at the Slade School of
Fine Art, UCL (MFA Painting 2015), at the Department of Fine Arts and Art Sciences,
University of Ioannina (BA, 2013) and at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Complutense
University of Madrid (Erasmus 2011). In his practice, desires, fantasies or autobiographical
deviations function as points of departure from which to explore ideological constructions,
representation, ambiguity, and painting tropes as building blocks for the construction of a
contemporary imaginary. Recent exhibitions include: “igni”, a proposal by Florent Frizet,
GB Agency (Paris, 2023), “180x120”, Haus N (Athens, 2023), “This Current Between us”,
PPC Historic Steam Electric Station of Neo Faliro, (Athens, 2023), “Cycladic Café Art
Project”, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens; “There is nothing inevitable about time”, Tavros
(Athens, 2022), “21! New Greek Painting”, Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos;
“Head2Head”, KEIV, Athens; “Beyond Nostalgia Hijack”, CAN Christina Androulidaki
Gallery (Athens, 2021), “Cra(u)sh. Or how you made me kiss the pavement”, Grace
(Athens, 2020).
Born in Wellington, New Zealand 1992 Yioryios Papayioryiou is a Athens-based artist whose work explores the boundaries between painting, sculpture and architecture. His sculptures visually translate his physiological and psychological responses to constructed space, both architectural and natural. Yioryios sets out to capture movement through time, through space, through light, through colour. His works are reflective of flux, of fluidity, of change; both his sculptures and paintings transform depending on their angle of placement or location of the viewer.
Natalia Astraea is a Greek contemporary artist who lives and works in Athens, Greece. She studied Performance and Visual arts at the University of Brighton where her practice mainly focused on sculpture, video art and surreal art installations. Later on, she moved to Istanbul where she developed a new painting technique with coffee, which is her current main ongoing project. Her work focuses on the relationship between human and consciousness, attempting to portray psyche and the deeper levels of the self.
Niki Danai Chania (b. 1989) is a multi-disciplinary artist and art director based in Eindhoven and Athens. She studied in the National Technical University of Athens, AKTO College and Design Academy Eindhoven. Her practice is self-taught and combines research, art and design, with a focus on experimental approaches. Since 2018 she is the co-founder of the art- design studio Un.Processed. Realities which takes place in Athens and Tinos. Since 2021, she is the co-founder of ESTO Association, a collaborative, non-profit project in Athens bringing together art, design and politics. She has participated in many exhibitions including 'Candlelight' (Basia Embiricos gallery, Paris, 2022),Studio Stone Age' (ESTO Association, 2022), 'Post European Rage Room' (Centrum, Berlin, 2021), 'Krama' Installation, (KEIV Gallery, Athens, 2021) 'Ruins of an Extreme Present', (Romantso, Athens, 2020).
Kostis Velonis lives and works in Athens. He holds an MRes in Humanities and Cultural Studies from London Consortium (Birkbeck College, ICA, AA, Tate). He studied Arts Plastiques/ Esthétiques at Université Paris 8 (D.E.A). He earned his PhD from the Department of Architecture, N.T.U.A University of Athens. Currently Velonis is Associate Professor at Athens School of Fine Arts (Art in Context). Kostis Velonis' sculptures explore the comic and awkward condition of the object as subject, implying allegoric, everyday narratives and mythological plots. Throughout his work, the emphasis is placed on the moral implications of failure and clumsiness caused by daydreaming and the reality that frustrates it. The context of this reading is articulated through a systematic vocabulary of forms and materials that refer to modernity via architectural typologies such as ancient Greek theatre structures (stage, stands, orchestra), the subpolitics of domesticity and rural life.
Ismene King (b.1993) is a sculptress and ceramist. She is a graduate from the MFA Sculpture programme at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. She currently lives and works in Athens, focusing on a practice which explores emotion and embodiment as a methodology for making. Her work has been shown in the solo exhibition 'Encounters in wreath-knot-chain formations' (2021), The Breeder Gallery, Athens (2021). Selected group exhibitions include 'True Love Leaves No Traces', Galerist, Istanbul (2022), 'Livings', 28 Sutherland Square, London (2018), '(dis)placement', Jacaranda, Rio de Janeiro and Off-Quay, London (2017), 'MEMEMEME', The Crypt Gallery, London (2017), 'XXL, Hotel Elephant, London (2016). She has received the G&A Mamidakis Foundation Art Prize 2022 and the Jeanne Szego Award (2017).
Despina Charitonidi (b. 1991) lives and works in Athens. She studied sculpture in the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome (2011), and she holds a BFA from Utrecht School of Fine Arts with main focus on installation and performance (2013). Her work has been presented among others; Atopos CVC, Athens (2023); Eins Gallery, Cyprus (2023); Microclima Festival, Venice - Cinema Galleggiante, IT (2022); 2022 Changwon Sculpture Biennale, South Korea (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Saad for the Serbian Pavilion Venice Biennale (2022); Callirrhoë, Athens (2021); Alkinois Project Space, Athens (2021); Ύλη (Matter)Hyle, Athens (2021); "Gemeinsamkeit und Kollektivität trotz Distanz", Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin (2021); Hydra School Projects, Hydra, Greece (2020); 2023 Eleusis - European Capital of Culture, Greece (2018); Utrecht Centraal Museum at Hoog Catharijne, Netherlands (2015); and MACRO, Rome Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2013). In the summer of 2023, her work "Bodies floating into the land" will be presented at the Temple of Poseidon in Tinos island, with the support of the Greek National Opera and Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Visiting hours
Every day except Tuesday, 20:00 - 01:00