“Melana”. An exhibition of contemporary visual ceramics in Aegina

The ceramic group exhibition Melana (Blackware) is opening at the Municipal Gallery of Aegina on Sunday July 21th at 11.30. The exhibition organized by the Municipality of Aegina, runs under the auspices of Fistiki Fest, conceived and curated by Iris Kritikou.

Following their highly successful presentation at the Hellenic American Union in Athens three years ago, Melana, bringing together some of the most eminent Greek ceramic artists from all over Greece, come to Aegina, a locus highly associated and interconnected with the ceramic knowhow and artistic expression in Greece. Moreover, several of the exhibition’s participants live and work on the island.

MELANA ILIAS CHRISTOPOULOS

The exhibition, which was long ago conceived as a multi-faced reference and aesthetic common ground by its curator, presents historical works and creations of contemporary Greek ceramic artists. Their main connecting element remains the prevailing black color of the ceramic work, with the many and subtle textures and variations of the pigment, which are sometimes due to the choice of the type of glaze and the way it is applied to the ceramic and sometimes to the choice of the type of clay or the way and degree of firing. The exhibition is an attempt to present the landscape of Greek ceramics today, with entries from Northern Greece to Crete and from the Ionian Islands to the Cyclades, the Sporades, the North Aegean and the Dodecanese.

It is an exhibition of contemporary visual ceramics that, following the original idea of this curated coexistence, proposes as its cohesive fabric a diverse aesthetic and symbolic reading of both matter and form: the black color of the ceramic work, with its many and delicate textures and variations of the pigment that sometimes are due to the choice of the type of glaze and the way it is applied to the ceramic and sometimes to the choice of the type of clay and the way of firing, becomes a minimal organic field of alchemical and sculptural expression that moves and delights the eye thanks to its inexhaustible possibilities.

“The exhibition participants provide indirect references to the non-figurative prehistoric vases, the black-painted and black-figure Greek vases of the archaic and early classical periods, the elegant kylix or goblets, the dark scyphoi and pithoi recovered from shipwrecks and the scarce black surface of shells that contributed to fair and unfair ostracisms”, notes curator Iris Kritikou. “But also, to the lustrous surface of the ceramic vessels of the East -China or Japan and other cultures, not lacking references and aesthetic comments associated with modern and contemporary international art. All these, along with the presence of exciting self-conceived contemporary works in both the conception and the perfection of the execution, do prove and underline the need of Ceramic Art to be presented as an Art equal to other fine art expression, with deep historical and newer origins and with inexhaustible possibilities of genesis and expression”.

The Municipal Gallery of Aegina and its contributors are delighted to welcome Melana, aware of the importance of the exhibition for this Saronic Island, linked to a long history in ceramic know-how and art. The Municipal Gallery of Aegina is about to complete its first year of operation on September 2024, having found an ideal roof in a ground-floor single space (former OTE building, in an easily accessible part of the city, near the monument of Markellos Tower).

Renovated and converted in a minimal functional way, with the exclusive aim of exhibition use, with free entry to citizens as well as frequent visitors of the island, it inaugurated its operation with the aim of gradually acquiring a competent permanent collection that will symbolically represent the significant visual history of the island. In the same space, important periodical exhibitions are hosted, compatible with its content and function, while educational programs, workshops and regular guided tours for children and adults that are conducted throughout the year remain also an important priority.

Participant artists

Vasileios Anastasopoulos, Vangelis Anetopoulos, Stelios Anetopoulos, Antonis Atsonios, Giorgos Vavatsis, Maria Vlandi, Mica Vogiatzi,

Katerina Giannaca, Mirka Drapaniotou, Stratos Zarglis, aro Theodorou, Carmella Iatropoulou, Tina Karageorgi, Kostas Karakitsos, Maro Kerasioti, Marina Coriolano-Lykourezos, Maro Kornilaki, Haroula Koropouli, Iosifina Kosma, Nancy Livathinou, Maria Linardaki, Fotis Lykos, Chrysanthe Libereou, Giannis Mamoutzis, Barbara Mavrakaki, Kyriaki Mavrogeorgi, Marilena Michopoulou, Christina Morali, Ilias Boudaniotis, Panagiotis Brentas, Menandros Papadopoulos, Angeliki Papadopoulou, Liana Papalexis, Maria Papanikolaou, Maria Petratou, Aggeliki Politi, Giorgos Pontikis, Fivos-Lambros Poultsiakis, Nikos Rodios, Magda Rodiou, Marilena Roussou, Vera Siaterli, Nikos Sklavenitis, Anthi Soultani, Maritsa Travlos, Vasso Triga, Theodora Tsirakoglou, Stamatis Filippaios, Manousos Chalkiadakis, Ilias Christopoulos, Theodora Chorafas.