Open Horizons: Exploring Greek Diaspora through art at Nafplio’s Old Customs House

“Creation is not the result of what we want to do. It is the result of an entire cosmic process… If one approaches it correctly, one can give it form… The only thing that encourages this kind of insight is love… And by love I mean the whole of it, eros and agape, the divine and the human reconciled, as the Greeks understood it. That is what I am trying to do: reconcile humanity with the world.” – Michalis Lekakis, 1969

With its new exhibition Open Horizons, the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum opens a dialogue on what it means to belong simultaneously to more than one culture and how diaspora can serve as a source of cultural richness and renewal. The exhibition explores the historical phenomenon of diasporic identity through the work of five artists of Greek origin who were active in the United States.

This is the second exhibition jointly organized by the Greek Ministry of Culture and the National Gallery at the restored Old Customs House of Nafplio, following Sea, Life-Giving Breath, presented in July 2025.

Historically, the Old Customs House functioned as a point of passage for people, goods, and ideas arriving by sea. The theme of Open Horizons therefore acquires a symbolic dimension, unfolding within a space that tells stories of movement, exchange, and openness to the world. Through this exhibition, the National Gallery continues its long-standing dialogue with the city of Nafplio around the concept of Greek identity. Presented in the first capital of the modern Greek state, the exhibition expands the narrative toward the Greek diaspora, demonstrating how Greek cultural creativity flourished beyond national borders.

The exhibition brings together twelve works from the National Gallery’s collection, several of which are being presented to the public for the first time outside the museum’s storage facilities. Featured artists include George Z. Constant (George Constantinopoulos), Michalis Lekakis, Theodore Chios, Theodore Stamos, and Athena Tacha.

The large-scale migration from the countries of Southern Europe to the United States began in the early twentieth century and continued throughout the interwar period. A second major migration wave emerged in the 1950s, driven by economic hardship and the consequences of the Greek Civil War. Whether first-generation immigrants or children of immigrants, the artists presented in the exhibition were either born in America or settled there in search of a more welcoming environment for their artistic, ideological, and professional aspirations.

Overcoming the challenges of integration, they built networks of trust and mutual support, studied at art academies, developed professional careers, and forged distinctive artistic paths. They formed artistic circles, taught in fine arts schools, gradually earned recognition from their peers, and distinguished themselves through the exceptional quality of their work. Their pioneering achievements contributed significantly to the development of American art and visual culture, marking the transition from diverse forms of representation toward abstraction, geometric art, colour-field painting, Abstract Expressionism, contemporary biomorphic sculpture, and public art of a functional and applied nature.

Their work reveals a creative transformation of ancestral cultural memory, a profound engagement with the richness of Greek mythology and tradition, and an ongoing reinterpretation of European modernism.

Curator: Syrago Tsiara, Director General of the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum