In the forest

Zisis Bliatkas, Katerina Charou, Zoe Keramea, Giorgos Kontis, Katerina Kotsala, Natalia Manta, George Stamatakis, Yiorgos Stamkopoulos

Curated by Areti Leopoulou.

Nitra Gallery is pleased to present Zisis Bliatkas, Katerina Charou, Zoe Keramea, Giorgos Kontis, Katerina Kotsala, Natalia Manta, George Stamatakis, Yiorgos Stamkopoulos in an exhibition curated by Areti Leopoulou.

‘A forest is an ecosystem where everything in it (trees, plants, animals) is connected in an interdependent relationship. Some help each other, others compete, fight or devour each other. But each plays its own role within this community’. With this sentence, we are introduced to the forest in James Gourier’s French children’s book, Guide do jejune Robinson (en forêt), (trans.. in Greek by C. Parisi, Kastaniotis Publishers 1997), offering expert information and exciting exploration tips.

From April 6, one will have the opportunity to explore a forest of artworks by a total of 8 artists at the Nitra Gallery (on Philippou Street in the centre of Thessaloniki). It is mentioned as a forest, because all the artworks in the exhibition, without exception, are inspired by nature itself and our relationship with it. From our inseparable bond with the natural microcosm and macrocosm, which is the common -both conceptual and iconographic- denominator in the artworks of the artists participating in the exhibition.

Paintings, sculptures, mixed techniques, or even games, several artistic perspectives that seem very different from each other, but all maintain, as their central point of reference, nature and its countless aspects.

In the exhibition “In the forest” one may find artworks of both figurative and abstract character, focused directly or implicitly on the forest and the large, tiny, sometimes almost invisible beings and creatures that belong to it. One will be able to look up or on the ground; to identify individual artistic aspects of a two or three-dimensional connections with space and nature; to find out that, even through artworks of completely different scales and approaches, a figurative or metaphorical dialogue can emerge between them, so that they ultimately constitute a “forest” functioning exactly as it organically does: as a whole.

Areti Leopoulou

Art historian – curator