Soft Prints: Chrysanthi Koumianaki’s new jewellery series at the B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation

A festive rooftop event featuring music and free admission to the exhibition Stephen Antonakos: Postscripts of Time and Space

The B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation for the Fine Arts and Music presents Soft Prints, a new jewellery series by visual artist Chrysanthi Koumianaki, and invites the public to a celebratory evening on its rooftop, featuring music and free access to the exhibition Stephen Antonakos: Postscripts of Time and Space.

Soft Prints is a limited-edition collection of handmade silver jewellery inspired by small everyday findings such as shells, seeds, stones, and other objects gathered during the artist’s wanderings, each carrying its own material presence and memory.

Within Koumianaki’s artistic practice, these found objects are transformed through a complex process that focuses on the impressions they leave on soft surfaces. These impressions are then reimagined as jewellery, becoming miniature sculptures. Through this gesture, the object is converted into a trace, both physical and symbolic. Things that often go unnoticed acquire the emotional significance bestowed upon them by being collected and carried close. Each jewellery piece emerges from a constellation of findings, while the body that wears it becomes a bearer of these imprints.

For Koumianaki, jewellery is closely linked to the idea of connection. These works function as a means of creating relationships: connecting her family, the family jewellery business, her collaborators, and those who wear her creations. Having grown up in the jewellery design and production workshop of Emmanouil Koumianakis in Heraklion, Crete, she continues a forty-year family tradition, creating and producing her collections there.

More collections can be found at the Emmanouil Koumianakis store in Heraklion, Crete, as well as through the brand’s online shop.

Programme

18:00 | Special Guided Tour of Stephen Antonakos: Postscripts of Time and Space

The exhibition is a tribute to the Greek-American artist Stephen Antonakos, presenting six decades of artistic production through works that explore the relationship between light, space, and time. Centred on abstraction and the use of neon, Antonakos’ works are placed in dialogue with twelve contemporary artists, highlighting the enduring relevance and influence of his artistic language.

The guided tour offers visitors an opportunity to experience the exhibition through a curated journey in which light transforms perceptions of space and time, encouraging a slower and more attentive way of looking. It is an exploration of art’s capacity to create dialogues between eras, forms, and audiences.

Admission: €5 (advance booking required)

19:00–22:00 | Extended Opening Hours for the Exhibition

Free admission

19:00–22:00 | Presentation of the Soft Prints Collection on the Foundation Rooftop

The B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation presents Koumianaki’s new jewellery collection on the fifth-floor rooftop terrace.

A selection of the collection will also be available for purchase at the Foundation’s Art Shop on the ground floor.

Throughout the evening, guests will be offered complimentary Ikariotissa beer.

Credits

Artistic Direction & Jewellery Design: Chrysanthi Koumianaki
Performers: Eva Vlassopoulou, Dimitris Mytilinaios
Set Design: Fanis Kafantaris
Live DJ Set: Royal Jelly

Following the event and until 24 July 2026, Soft Prints will remain on display on the ground floor of the Foundation, with selected pieces available for purchase through the Art Shop.

About Chrysanthi Koumianaki

Born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1985, Chrysanthi Koumianaki is a visual artist living and working in Athens. Her practice centres on installations that combine sculpture, drawing, printmaking, performance, video, and sound. Public space, traces of use, urban decay, and personal interventions within the built environment form key areas of her research.

Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions at institutions, museums, and galleries including CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery (Athens), The Nordic House (Reykjavík), the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, the Greek National Opera, the B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation, NEON Organization, Netwerk Aalst, Fondation Hippocrène, the Museum of Cycladic Art, Kadist, the Benaki Museum and the Athens Biennale, among others.

Her work has also been included in exhibitions organised by institutions such as Fondazione Prada, DESTE Foundation and New Museum. She has participated in programmes including Studiotopia (BOZAR and the Onassis Foundation), Onassis Air and Artworks.