“In Love: Love in Art” at Sianti Gallery: 27 contemporary Greek artists portray love through their own eyes

Twenty-seven contemporary Greek artists, painters and sculptors, both established and younger, depict love through their own eyes

Sianti Gallery opens on Friday 14 February 2025 at 20:00 the group exhibition of paintings and sculptures entitled “In Love: Love in Art”, curated by art historian Hera Papapostolou.

Love is a deep and complex emotion involving attraction, passion and affection between two people. In modern times, however, it has been almost exclusively shaped by social change, technology and the fast pace of life. As a result, the question “What is love?” is all too often asked and answered through various forms of art.

The poetry of Robert Graves raises individual questions: “Is it a return to our centre, to the familiar core of innocence still full of trust? Is it a first wild outburst of our existence, an attempt to take extreme measures and be omniscient for a few hours? Is it the ancient vision that lights our way with dangerous oracles, awaiting the timely intervention of death”?

This question, which concerns all people at some point in their lives, is the reason why Sianti Gallery decided to organise a group exhibition. Twenty-seven contemporary Greek artists, painters and sculptors, both established and younger, depict love through their own eyes. Large canvases and medium and large sculptures, like erotic sonnets, make up the most erotic exhibition of the year.

As the exhibition’s curator, Hera Papapostolou, notes in the catalogue: “Love is the projection of our needs onto other people, whom we hope will satisfy them. And because we want them to be satisfied, we idealise the other person and believe that they are the one we want. [Love is the only outlet to fill in what we didn’t get from our mother or father“. But without this need, there would be no books, no poems, no music, no choreographies, no sculptures, no plays, no paintings. For love inspires and has inspired artists throughout the ages.

Either way, love is a force that can inspire, transform and give meaning to life, but it can also bring uncertainty, pain and tension. That’s why artworks are sometimes serene and dreamy, and sometimes harsh and surreal. But it is through them that the deepest aspects of ourselves emerge. How each artist lives this journey of tension and contrast is shown in the exhibition “In Love”, where love takes shape and colour.

Participating painters (in alphabetical order): Alithinos Dimitris , Antonaropoulos Christos, Asariotaki Kalliopi, Valyrakis Yannis, Georgiopoulou Vicky, Ginaki Anastasia, Ieromonachou Gogo, Katsipanos Theophilos, Kontellis Andreas, Lalas Thanasis, Belivanaki Lila, Boviatsou Lambrini, Papaioannou Christina, Papaioannou Christina, Parmakeli Eleni, Siagris Panagiotis, Siskos Nikos, Spartalis Angelos, Fotiadou Sofia, Hanioti Dimitra, Chantzaras Apostolos and the sculptors : Vassiliki, Alexopoulos Stathis, Gavalas Stelios, Georgiadis Giorgos, Papagiannis Theodoros, Papoutsidis Nikos-Giorgos, Stamatakou Angeliki