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The Athens Print Fest ’09 / First Edition to Open with Several Exhibitions Around the City of Athens

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Written by rubin   
Wednesday, 27 May 2009 02:45

Apostolos Piroudinis - After The Storm, 2006 - Hand colored lihograph, A/P Edition of 5 - Collecton of artist

ATHENS.- The Athens Print Fest ’09 / First Edition is being organized by the Greek Printmakers’ Association and the Cultural Organization of the Municipality of Athens, from June 3rd to 28th, 2009, in various locations in the city of Athens. With this exhibition, the Hellenic American Union wishes to honor Angelos Catacouzinos, who was not only a distinguished neurologist and psychiatrist, but also a founding member and the president of the Hellenic American Union from 1967 until 1975. During this time, he helped make the Hellenic American Union a prestigious cultural organization and laid valuable groundwork for its future development and progress. 

The Greek Printmakers’ Association is participating in the Festival with a thematic exhibition entitled “Difficult Nights” taking place at the “Melina” Cultural Center from June 3rd to 28th. The exhibition comprises works designed to match the doubtful days we live in. The night is modern, the icon of our ignorance, of our limits, the core of our being. Plato thrust us into the dark of the cave, thus condemning the false, misleading quality of light. Tiresius the clairvoyant did not need eyes in order to see. The night requires us to conjure up a different kind of gaze. And it is up to each of us to find our own perspective; to each his own night. Artists Odysseas Annitsakis, Ilia Rena Anoussi, Susanna Aposporidou, Mihalis Arfaras, George Vlassopoulos, Manolis Yannadakis, Nikos Desekopoulos, Elisabeth Dionysopoulou, Christiana Iliopoulou, Eleni Kaprou, Aria Komianou, Yannis Kolios, Grigoris Kotsaris, Dimitra Koumantaki, Adriana Kotsi, Dina Kotsiou, Kati Mahrt, George Milios, Tonia Nikolaidi, Iris Xyla-Xanalatou, Eleni Ikonomidou, Pino Pantolfini, Katerina Papadimitropoulou, Apostolos Piroudinis, Dimitra Petropoulou – Dimitraki, Irene Podimata – Stefanaki, Dimitra Siaterli, Rania Stathopoulou, Nikos Stavrakantonakis, Yannis Stefanakis, Mary Schina, Vicky Tsalamata and Florence Christaki have been asked to give participating in a group exhibition comprising 100 works.

Florence Christakis, "Difficult Night: Insomnia" 2009, etching monoprint, 90 x 70 cm. Greek Printmaker's AssociationOn their own exhibition premises, the “Technohoros” (Artspace), the Greek Printmakers’ Association also presents an exhibit of small prints, entitled “Pocket Print”, from June 3rd to 28th. The etchings on show will be contributed by members and associates of “Technohoros”. Etched and printed based on various techniques, they demonstrate the artists’ excellent knowledge of their craft as applied to small-sized works.

As part of the “First Edition” Prints’ Fest, the Hellenic American Union presents for the first time The Etchings of the Angelos and Leto Catacouzinos Foundation, from June 3rd to 30th. The collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Spyros Vassiliou, Yannis Tsarouchis, Giorgos Demos, and others. These etchings were gifts from the artists to the Catacouzinos couple, at a time when their home was an art salon of the 1930’s generation. At the same time, they reflect the strong bonds created between significant intellectual personalities at that time.

From June 3rd to 30th, Alpha Bank, will be showing the educational exhibition “What Is a Print?” at the Hellenic American Union’s Kennedy Gallery (Massalias 22, Athens). Alpha Bank has a considerable collection of etchings, in particular by Greek artists (woodcut and copperplate prints, lithographies, books containing original etchings). It is a collection spanning the entire history of printmaking in Greece from 1880 up to the present day and comprising works by all significant artists. 

This exhibition chooses a straightforward approach to the creation of prints, and does so by showing what the inside of an etching and printmaking workshop looks like, by exhibiting tools, printmaking plaques and the works that result from them. In addition, thorough explanatory texts and photographs allow us to observe the various stages of printing an etching.

The Cervantes Institute will host a solo exhibition by the Spanish artist Ines Piqueras Garcia entitled “Innermost Nature” from June 3rd to 28th. The Festival opens officially on Wednesday, June 10th, at 20:00 at the “Melina” Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens.

From June 3rd to 28th, the Italian Institute is hosting a group exhibition of Contemporary Italian Etchings entitled “The Dual Dream of Art” in its premises (Patission 47). 34 works will be on show at this exhibition, all from the 2RC Atelier and curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, thus allowing the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens to present a unique panorama of Italian etchings from the 1970’s to the present day. With works by Lucio Fontana, Burri, Afro, Giacomo Manzu’ and other artists, the show reflects the evolution of “amorphous” Italian printmaking in the most expressive of ways.

From June 11th to 28th, the Piraeus Municipal Gallery will be presenting a group exhibition of Greek etchings entitled “Impressions on Paper – the Evolution of Greek Printmaking from 1860 up to the Present Day”. This is a unique undertaking in the field of visual arts, curated by Emmanuel Mavromatis (Honorary Professor of Art History at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), who specializes in the study of printmaking and has endeavored to trace its development from the 19th century until the present day, based on authentic etchings by 126 artists and a total of approximately 300 works on show at the exhibition.

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