5 SHOWS is the new Artissima twice-monthly feature that recommends 5 exhibitions not to be missed in various European cities, chosen from the viewpoint of curators and directors of important institutions familiar with the local context. A different way to find guidance in the discovery of contemporary art across borders, with a personal and always up-to-date perspective.
The second focus is on Athens, with a selection by Katerina Gregos, artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.
Here are the 5 exhibitions currently on view she has chosen for our readers:
Banu Cennetoğlu. everything is broken up and dances
Sylvia Kouvali
Up to 15.02.2025
Conducted previously in Romania, South Korea and Germany, the collection of home distilled spirits is presented here in the form of a bar, collected solely from the island of Crete. An ancient practice that has become more and more strictly controlled and regulated, moonshining has been essential to agricultural communities, and each place produces their particular type of drink, depending on the popular fruit the land yields, the geography, the type of distillation, the material of the tanks in which the distillation takes place, the age, meaning the knowledge of the distiller, the technique, and so on.
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Lucian Moriyama: White Noise
Alkinois Project Space
Up to 15.02.2025
Lucian Moriyama (b. 1991, Honolulu) is a Brussel-based artist who revisits cultural and material histories, excavating utopian forms and exotic fantasies. Artifice and fiction emerge as central themes in his works exploring the lacunae and exotica of art history, architecture, and music. Moriyama makes mainly sculptures in scagliola, a plaster-based technique imitating marble which was widely used in baroque palaces, World’s Fairs, and for Grand Tour souvenirs. His sculptures form imaginary geologies, forged photographs, fictional books, and are sometimes expanded into tragicomic songs, exploring the interplay between reality and fiction.
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Thomas Schütte
Bernier Eliades
Up to 04.03.2025
Thomas Schütte’s work explores the depiction of flowers in various stages of existence—blooming, wilting—serving as a profound existential metaphor. This thematic exploration extends to his female figures, which, through watercolors and sculptures, convey tenderness or tension. The wide range of materials, from delicate watercolors to rigid steel, lends his work the quality of a personal diary, capturing fleeting thoughts and concerns. His pieces transcend mere representation, as the titles combine sarcasm and wordplay, offering a melancholic perspective.
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Christina Dimitriadis. Horizon Wanderers
Eleni Koroneou Gallery
Up to 22.02.2025
Eleni Koroneou Gallery is pleased to present the new solo exhibition by Christina Dimitriadis titled Horizon Wanderers. The exhibition Horizon Wanderers features two photographic series that approach the ship from different perspectives. The first part, titled Anatomy of the Ship, focuses on the construction of the ship, highlighting the process of its creation, while the second part, titled Ever Blue, explores the ship’s disintegration, focusing on the effects of human activity on the marine environment and the degradation of its natural beauty.
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Francisco Goya. Los Caprichos
National Gallery
Up to 30.09.2025
Eighty prints, including etchings on paper and aquatints from 1797–98, will be showcased in a significant exhibition, accompanied by photographs of the preparatory drawings. This is Goya’s first print series and one of the two published during his lifetime. The series, in the National Gallery Collection, was printed in 1803 and acquired in 1962 during Marinos Kalligas’s tenure as director.
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