“7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective inspired by the Gennadius Library”

The Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens celebrates 100 years since its foundation. As part of its centennial events, the Library welcomes, from December 2, the seven visual artists of the AFI collective and hosts their exhibition “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the Gennadius Library”

For 44 uninterrupted years, the AFI collective has remained committed to the slow, manual construction of ideas. Each member works with different materials and techniques within a shared artistic inquiry that leads to constant evolution.
The works presented at the Gennadius Library, inspired by the institution’s rich collections, begin from different points of departure and employ a range of techniques: ceramics, textiles, handmade paper, printmaking, sculpture, cyanotypes, artist books and drawings. With an emphasis on quality craftsmanship, ancient and traditional methods are often combined to create contemporary artworks.
The exhibition also includes materials used during the creative process, sketches, tools, and a camera obscura.

The exhibition will be accompanied by guided tours, demonstrations and workshops on handmade paper, cloth doll and book-making, card weaving, wire sculpture, Sashiko stitching and embroidery – all led by the artists themselves. These parallel activities are designed to engage audiences of all ages, allowing visitors to experience the exhibition actively and to appreciate this remarkable and unique library through hands-on learning.

The exhibition is supported by NEON Organisation for Culture and Development.

Selected Works & Artist Biographies

Judith Allen-Efstathiou
Sculptor and printmaker working also with mixed media. She works with copper, lithography on paper, cyanotypes and drawing, combining traditional techniques with contemporary approaches.
Her project Mapping the Walk records herb-related walking routes on Kea, aiming to support the historical preservation of the island’s trail system. The accompanying book was published by Kapon Editions in 2022, and an archive of 36 original drawings has been deposited in the Gennadius Library collections.

For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the Gennadius Library”, she studies the earliest travelers who visited Greece – both botanists and archaeologists. More specifically, she researches Sibthorp’s ten-volume Flora Graeca (1806–1840), Dodwell’s Views of Greece (1821) and Voyage du… as depicted opposite Sibthorp’s lithographs. She creates lithographs based on these “ghost images.”
She also prepares drawings and camera-obscura impressions of selected archaeological sites, captured as they are today, with scaffolding, in contrast to the idyllic depictions made by early travelers.

Inger Carlsson
Works with textiles using dyes, handmade embroidery, Sashiko stitching and appliqué to explore the relationship between humans, nature and the environment. Currently exhibiting at Anna H. Gallery in Gothenburg, Sweden.
For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the Gennadius Library” she studies Greek garments as depicted by travelers of the 17th–18th centuries – exploring stitching details, hats, buttons and pockets. She seeks to understand how travelers survived unknown journeys without modern equipment, and her textile works investigate these questions.

Maria Grigoriou
Works with fabric and multiple techniques: hand-weaving, handmade paper, collage, natural dyeing, indigo, sewing – using silk threads, handmade paper, cotton fabrics and yarns.
For the Gennadius exhibition she researches the history and chemistry of natural plant dyeing and the books of early travelers to Greece.
She will create large-scale artist books and woven works inspired by the colors of watercolors and lithographs, as well as by her own two-year daily recording of coastal walks near her studio – an almost monochromatic, ever-changing landscape embodying depth, time and infinity.

Despina Pantazopoulou
Designs jewelry specifically micro-sculptures in metal, marble, wood and leather. Her work was presented in the Benaki Museum exhibition Art in Gold. Jewellery in the Hellenistic World.
For the Gennadius exhibition, she creates a work inspired by Erotokritos by Vitsentzos Kornaros an epic, heroic and erotic drama (1590–1610) with folk songs, proverbs, ancient Greek references and Western elements such as jousting.
Her sculptural work The Lie of Arethousa refers to Rhapsody D, verse 643: in the narrative, Arethousa denies giving her ring to Erotokritos, claiming she lost it while dancing with friends.
Inspired by references to tools in the text, she explores writing instruments as extensions of the hand – creating small sculptures that examine how materials used for writing tools shaped written language over time.

Yannis Papadopoulos
Sculptor and mixed-media artist creating artist books and sculptural works from rattan, wire and handmade paper.
He weaves using simple linen cords through meditative repetition, exploring both miniature book-objects and monumental sculptural forms.
His research focuses on historical book-making archives and paper dyeing techniques, which inform the sculptural language of his books in handmade paper and calligraphy.

Eva Cheiladaki
Textile artist creating soft sculptures and puppets made from fabric, felt, papier-mâché, wood, and repurposed vintage textiles.
She often works with mythology and Greek folk tales – such as Cronus, a life-size soft sculpture exhibited at the Benaki Museum (2022–2023), and works inspired by The Ship of Fools (Brant), presented in the Benaki exhibition The Tools Tell Their Story (2023).
For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the Gennadius Library” she studies traditional embroidered motifs depicting folk myths to inspire new soft sculpture work.

Theodora Chorafa
Ceramicist working in sculpture and installation.
Her solo exhibition was featured in the 1st Greek Ceramic Biennale at the Industrial Tomato Museum “D. Nomikos” in Santorini (2024).
For “7 artists-7 narratives. AFIcollective at the Gennadius Library” she creates ceramic sculptures using the Japanese raku-firing technique, exploring the mystery of life through materiality – combining clay with natural elements such as bone and wool.