Observer’s Guide to the Best Exhibitions in Athens This Summer

In addition to its rich archaeological heritage, Athens also has a vibrant contemporary art scene.

Greece is undoubtedly one of the best travel destinations in the summertime, with its unique combination of stunning natural landscapes, ancient ruins, rich culture and delicious food. While visiting the beautiful islands and cultural gems of the Mediterranean, many people make a stop in Athens, which in addition to a deep archaeological heritage also has a vibrant contemporary art scene. If you’re planning a trip to Athens before summer’s end, consider adding visits to some or all of the galleries and museums below to your itinerary. From solo exhibitions of work by major international artists like Tala Madani, Anselm Kiefer and Cindy Sherman to the debut in Greece of talented visionary painter Yu Nishimura, we’ve compiled a list of the current must-see art shows in Athens.

“What if Women Run The World?” and Tala Madani at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Αthens (ΕΜΣΤ)

The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (ΕΜΣΤ) is hosting the last iteration of a brilliantly curated series of exhibitions exclusively dedicated to the work of artists who identify as women, under the title “What if Women Ruled the World?” Conceived of by ΕΜΣΤ’s artistic director Katerina Gregos, the exhibition series is based on that often-repeated hypothetical question. “Women artists and cultural practitioners are still underrepresented in most aspects of the art world, and we wanted to reverse the narrative,” Gregos told Observer last year.

The series featured fourteen solo shows of woman-identifying Greek and international artists of different generations,  accompanied by a complete re-hang of an entire floor of the museum’s permanent collection focusing on women’s practices. The initiative is part of an important worldwide exercise to rethink museum collections—one especially necessary in persistently patriarchal societies. Greece never had a prominent organized feminist movement in the visual arts, and women artists were systematically marginalized over decades, so this is both an important statement and a redressing of a significant imbalance.

Offering a powerful statement on the gender gap and societal stereotypes, this summer the museum is showing work by Iranian artist Tala Madani in “Shitty Disco,” which presents for the first time in Greece the artist’s multilayered work that lies between painting and animation. Madani’s works are heavy on irony and sharp satire but also rich in narrative and wild imagination. Depicting her characters in their vulnerability or disclosing the absurdity of their behaviors, which most often fall into the grotesque, the artist offers an open commentary on the injustice of different socio-cultural dynamics and power structures in the relationship between men and women and toward those in more fragile categories. Her animations and videos openly address deeply-seated cultural fears, stereotypes, perverted cultural rules and extremist religious beliefs that mostly derive from an enduring patriarchal and male-centered system. Themes such as expression/repression and shame/ awareness are central. Exasperating the awkwardness and emphasizing the vulnerability or grotesque of her characters, her work addresses the results of social pressure on individuals while dismantling preconceived gender roles and stereotypes of sexuality, group and gender dynamics, westernized and idealized notions of family and the construction of identity.

Also on view at the museum is a selection of works by Chryssa, the pioneer Greek artist who recently had a show at the Dia Foundation in Chelsea, as well as a wall installation by Claudia Comte and an impressive installation-based show of works by Bruxelles-based Greek artist Danai Anesiadou. As the series’ concept stresses, we are in a time when we see the rise of male-driven authoritarian rule globally, leading to a growing polarization and heightened geopolitical tensions. In this context, it’s very timely to have those shows encouraging a reflection on how feminine energies might instead be able to encourage a different harmony.

“Shitty Disco” by Tala Madani is on view at The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (ΕΜΣΤ) through November 10.

Yu Nishimura at ARCH, Athens

Within walking distance of the Acropolis, Arch’s beautifully contemporary architecture houses this summer the enigmatic work of Japanese painter Yu Nishimura. Originating in hallucinations, dreams and nightmares, these mysterious paintings by Nishimura translate silent desires and impressions coming from the depths of his subconscious.  Dreamy and eery, his scenes are characterized by psychological tension, which disrupts all the boundaries between the reality felt and perceived. Titled “Sleep Walk,” the show presents mental landscapes by the artist that accurately isolate human behaviors and sensations. Often overlapping and overlaying the various imagery accompanying memory and experience, his pictures become fluid, suspended between an event, the fantasy of it and its elaboration.

“Sleep Walk” by Yu Nishimura is on view at Arch through September 14.

Anselm Kiefer at Gagosian, Athens

While Anselm Kiefer’s practice has always been heavy in mythological and ancient cultural references and symbolism, this summer, the acclaimed contemporary artist is finally having his first-ever solo presentation in the Greek Capital. Dominated by a symbolic contrast between the luminosity of gold and the terrestrial use of ashes, used fabric and muted earthy acrylic colors and dark hues in the background, the works on show evoke themes of creation, metamorphosis and the cyclical nature of existence. Conceived as poetic landscapes, Kiefer’s large canvases are dense with historical and literary references, drawing, in this case, inspiration from the ancestral myth of an idyllic “Golden Age” that preceded civilization and was characterized by a harmonious relation with nature.

Kiefer explains in a statement accompanying the show that he chose “materials that have something to say to me: ash, sand, lead, gold, etc. For me, these are selected things that have a spirit in them, which I bring out, make visible” In composing these new works, the artist has applied alchemical symbolism based on these primordial tensions between light and darkness, the desire for spiritual elevation and attachment to terrestrial and physical desires and needs.

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All the artworks on display are named after ancient deities or mythological characters, blending the original myth with interpretations by other artists throughout art history. For example, two of the main paintings from 2023 are titled Danaë, inspired by the mythological figure of Danaë, who was imprisoned by her own father, King Acrisius of Argos, due to a prophecy that her son would kill him. However, Zeus is able to gain access by transforming himself into a shower of gold, which results in Perseus’ conception. Already interpreted by major artists such as Titian, Rembrandt and, later, Gustav Klimt, this myth in particular lets Kiefer continue this legacy of narrative reinterpretation and actualization through a contemporary aesthetic while similarly indulging in this melancholic longing for a more glorious but often idealized past that we may associate with ancient Greece.

“Anselm Kiefer” is on view at Gagosian, Athens, through August 24.

Cindy Sherman at Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens

The star of the Picture Generation, Cindy Sherman, is having her first solo exhibition in Greece, featuring early works including some of the most iconic shots of the Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980), Rear Screen Projections (1980), Centerfolds (1981) and Color Studies(1981-1982). Combining photography and performance since the 70s, Sherman has been playing with the tension between identity and storytelling in a mass media society—a phenomenon now amplified by social media. Appropriating female stereotypes conveyed by television, cinema and advertising, Sherman has been the artistic director, makeup artist and stylist of her own endless transformation and disguisement, unveiling and challenging strategies of representing female bodies and personalities.

Throughout the exhibition, a twenty-minute segment from her 2009 Art21 production film Transformation is screened, revealing the complex creative process she has followed in more than forty years of practice. Sherman’s investigation into female representation creates a symbolic conversation with the museum’s renowned collection of Cycladic art: the famous marble female figurines from the third millennium BC represent the great mother-goddess of fertility and rebirth, a goddess who could similarly assume different roles in a woman’s life circle.

“Cindy Sherman: Early Works” is on view at the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, through November 4. 

The Breeder, Athens

The Breeder is probably one of the most internationally oriented galleries in Greece today. Founded in 2002 by Stathis Panagoulis and George Vamvakidis, it was an offshoot of The Breeder magazine (which launched in 2000) driven by the need to build an artistic dialogue between Athens and the world. Over the past twenty years, The Breeder gallery has been a pioneer in the development of the contemporary art scene in Athens, both by bringing international artists to the gallery and taking Greek ones to the international stage. Located in an abandoned 1970s ice cream factory, the space was redesigned by Aris Zambicos architects and later acknowledged by the Hellenic Institute of Architecture.

The gallery has an ”open studio” model that alternates with shows on view, transforming The Breeder into a studio space for four to six weeks to become an outpost of an invited artist’s studio. During this time, the gallery is open by appointment, allowing art enthusiasts to schedule private studio visits. Currently on is “Thirsty,” a solo exhibition of paintings by Greek artist Maria Joannou (the daughter of Dakis Joannou, the patron behind the renowned DESTE Foundation). Joannou’s paintings isolate fragments of daily gestures, with particular attention to female bodies and how they translate psychological states in their positions and attitudes towards their male companions. Also on view is a group show, “Light Me Up,” curated by Nicolas Vamvouklis, featuring fourteen artists ranging from promising Greek talents to international names, including Ariana Papademetropoulos and Miltos Manetas.

“Thirsty” by Maria Jannou and “Light Me Up” are on view at The Breeder, Athens, through August 31.

Hot Wheels, Athens 

Established in 2009 and now with locations in Athens and London, Hot Wheels has made its name in the international gallery scene with a very progressive research-based program that prioritizes installation and multimedia-based projects. This summer in Athens, the gallery has mounted a solo exhibition of Albanese and New York-based conceptual artist and musician Sem Lala, featuring a series of paintings, works of paper and minimal interventions that reflect on the concept of “Flipside,” namely turning around things, splitting and unveiling one side that still has to be completed by another or discover another side of it in its absence.

“Flipside” by Sem Lala is on view at Hot Wheels Athens through August 17.

The Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athens

Established as a foundation in 1979, the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation opened as a museum (unofficially the Goulandris Museum of Modern Art) in Athens in 2019 to present and promote the couple’s first-class collection of modern and contemporary art. On view are stunning works by Picasso, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cézanne and Roy Lichtenstein, to name a few of the artists they’ve collected over the years. This summer, the foundation is presenting an exhibition of works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, featuring some of his most iconic shoots, which perfectly exemplify his ability to capture “the decisive moment” and freeze it in time, as it develops in its uniqueness and the unrepeatable perfect combination of elements.

“Henri Cartier-Bresson” is on view at the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation through October 27.