“Maria Oikonomopoulou, All Included”: The ‘Narrative’ of the Artist’s Entire Body of Work, Presented for the First Time at CITRONNE Gallery

As the title of the exhibition suggests, works from all the artist’s thematic periods are presented together for the first time. This creates a “narrative” of her overall practice, unfolding as an open-ended exploration of the balance between the personal and the collective. In an increasingly complex and contradictory world, the phrase All Included also alludes to a utopian yet meaningful aspiration: inclusion-not as a state of completeness, but as an ongoing process of negotiation between the “self” and the “others,” freedom and limitation.

The exhibition All Included is structured around questions that extend from the intimate to the global, examining the ways in which we coexist, form relationships, and set boundaries. The creative process functions as a means of organizing thought and transforming experience into form. It invites viewers to reflect on how we might live together without losing our individuality. The spatial layout of CITRONNE Gallery-an apartment on the fourth floor of a 1960s Athenian apartment building-successfully aligns each room with a stage of thinking. In this way, the artist’s trajectory is mapped from self-observation toward collective experience and the articulation of universal questions.

Oikonomopoulou works with common, everyday materials-paper, thread, fabric, pencil, wax. These are chosen both for their accessibility and for their role as carriers of memory. They are materials associated with handicraft, education, and collective practices, which are reintroduced into the visual arts as vehicles of relationship, experience, and coexistence. Her works are characterized by meticulous and often labor-intensive care, precision, and especially subtle gestures that are translated into form. They depict and convey the ideals of our shared inhabitation of the world. Oikonomopoulou believes that when an honest, introspective gaze is externalized and reflects clear perception and respect for the other, everyday life can be elevated through simple, human gestures.

The exhibition All Included proposes a space of (self-)observation and contemplation, where everyday experience becomes a field of shared questions. As the artist herself notes:

“In the exhibition All Included I chose to include works from different periods in order to share how my thinking and practice evolve. The works begin with autobiographical references and expand conceptually toward broader social issues. They negotiate the uncertainty and doubt an individual feels about their relationship to others and to society as a whole-a relationship that is never easy, but is necessary for the balance and growth of each of us. And it may contribute to the creation of a ‘togetherness’ that does not stem from the need for survival, but is a conscious choice, when we recognize that within it we will be fulfilled.”
—Maria Oikonomopoulou, 2026

All Included is Maria Oikonomopoulou’s first solo exhibition at CITRONNE Gallery and marks the beginning of her collaboration with the gallery.

A Few Words About Maria Oikonomopoulou

Maria Oikonomopoulou was born in 1961 in Kalamata. After completing her studies in Economics, she moved to the Netherlands in 1985. She initially studied for two years at the Free Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and then at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, from which she graduated in 1991 with a specialization in Sculpture and Monumental Art.

Based in Rotterdam, Oikonomopoulou’s practice focuses on long-term processes that explore the balance between the collective and the individual. Central themes in her work are the concepts of growth and care. The economic crisis in Greece has deeply influenced her perspective. Beyond its political dimensions, she is particularly interested in how people share and experience urban spaces as citizens within a city.

Her artistic activity spans three interconnected practices: works for public spaces that involve the community in the creative process, solitary studio work, and public interventions. She employs a wide range of materials and techniques, often incorporating photography and time-consuming methods inspired by folk arts, such as embroidery on fabric and intricate paper cutting.

Her work has been presented in Belgium, Greece, and the Netherlands, and she has completed commissions for public spaces in the Netherlands. Her works are held in public collections, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, the Meermanno Museum in The Hague, various public institutions in the Netherlands, as well as numerous private collections across Europe.