“‘I Was Only Endangered by Uncontrolled Thoughts’ by Alexandros Psychoulis at the Chania Municipal Art Gallery”

A new reading of the 40-year journey of the multifaceted Alexandros Psychoulis within the landscape of contemporary Greek and international visual art is presented through the exhibition “I Was Only Endangered by Uncontrolled Thoughts”, opening at the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania. Curated by art historian Christoforos Marinos, the exhibition will run from 16 May to 4 October 2026.

More than 150 paintings, installations, animations, comics, sculptures, notes, and preparatory sketches “occupy” the three exhibition levels of the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, without following the linear narrative of a conventional retrospective exhibition.

Instead, they illuminate the innovative perspective the artist introduced into contemporary Greek art, shaped by media culture, private television, new technologies, computers, pop culture, music, comics, graphic design, fashion, design, and architecture.

The works intermingle, converse, and confront one another, revealing the “keys” to Alexandros Psychoulis’ practice: language as a force that permeates and defines his entire oeuvre, the handmade coexisting with technological mediation, and the intertwining of the urban and digital landscape within a constant state of transformation.

“I Was Only Endangered by Uncontrolled Thoughts” is the observation made by Alexandros Psychoulis himself, as he recounts with honesty, humour, and a reflective spirit his personal trajectory and his many experiments across visual art, music, and theatre in his extensive autobiographical text included in the exhibition’s fully illustrated bilingual (Greek–English) catalogue.

“A retrospective exhibition is usually understood as a form of summation, a process leading to archiving and historical evaluation. Alexandros Psychoulis’ retrospective may also be viewed differently: as the mature fruit of a gesture of planting. It is the moment of harvest – the gathering of the fruits of a long artistic journey – and at the same time the promise of new seeds,” notes Christoforos Marinos in his original critical analysis of the artist’s work, which unfolds following the flow of the alphabet.

Alexandros Psychoulis was born in Volos in 1966 and studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts. His early works were interactive installations activated by the viewer, exploring the subconscious by decoding fears, desires, and memories into images and sounds. His ongoing investigation of the landscape of digital reality remains central to his practice today, which includes spatial installations, animation, and painting. In 1997, he received the Benesse Prize for his work Black Box, presented at the 47th Venice Biennale, and has exhibited extensively in Greece and abroad. He is Professor of “Art and Technology” at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly.