On Thursday 25 August at 20:00, in the ‘Irene Katsigra’ room of the Municipal Gallery of Larissa – Museum G. I. Katsigra, will inaugurate the exhibition entitled “Diadromi” by the artist Antigoni Kavvatha, curated by Yannis Bolis, art historian.
Diadromi: the title not only of Antigone Kavvatha’s emblematic composition, but also of the exhibition that brings together works from her career over the last thirty years or so – a career that is primarily characterised by her commitment to the possibilities of the art of painting. With the compositions of Diadromi, Antigone Kavvatha affirms the aesthetic, spiritual and ethical values of her creation in an alienated and levelling era, challenges the gaze, addresses, conceals and reveals, raises issues of existential and ontological order, invokes a deeper communication, puts forward a different conception of vision and interpretation, and depicts her vital relationship with the world, history and memory. Her painting, open to multiple readings and interpretations, constitutes an unpredictable setting of human life, seeking the involvement, complicity and reaction of the viewer.

Ο ΝΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΕΓΩ – DON AND I, 2006-2007, 202X490cm, charcoal on paper

In her large-scale compositions with acrylic paints and charcoal, Antigone Kavvatha presents the images of an ambiguous world, suspended between light and darkness, the existence of the real and its spectral reflection. Through the powerful and evocative depiction of each of her subjects as well as the expressive intensity and qualities of black, white and grey tones, she proceeds to a different perception of viewing, rendering and interpretation, focusing on what is hidden beneath the surface. Each work worked on the surface of paper or mylar, is charged by the visual meaning she gives it and the way she structures and works with it.

The exhibition brings together 54 large-scale works that span the artist’s career from the early 1990s to the present. Of interest is a section of works that refer to contemporary political and social situations. The most characteristic work in this section is Diadromi, an 18-metre-long continuous painting-painting-painting life-form that will be developed on the walls of the main hall. This monumental work looks back at 20th century history, major events and the fates of people in turbulent times. Antigone Kavvatha opens her art to controversial issues that “describe” and “iconize” a world that is fragmented, violent, transitional and ever-changing, a world that has lost its constants, ideologies and reference points.

ANTIGONI KAVVATHA JOURNEY – ΠΟΡΕΙΑ, 2017-2019, 0.61X17.60m, λεπτομέρεια, acrylics on mylar

A strong unifying line runs through Antigone Kavvatha’s creation. A contemporary aesthetic perception and perspective. The nature of painting as a position, attitude and philosophy of life, as a transcription of the world with pure visual values, as a dialogue with the space of the “secret” and the “inconceivable”, the everyday and the familiar, history and memory, as an existential question and as a catalytic condition of integration and determination, lies at the core of her art. Her Pathway meets the light and shadow that breathes and moves within them. 

ANTIGONI KAVVATHA, ΧΘΟΝΙΑ ΦΙΔΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΙΕΡΑ ΔΕΝΤΡΑ, 2011

Antigoni Kavvatha was born in 1955 in Thessaloniki. She studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts under the tutelage of G. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts at the Athens Academy of Fine Arts with G.G. Moralis and did postgraduate studies in New York and Boston, USA. He has had twelve solo exhibitions and has participated in more than 60 group exhibitions in Museums, Cultural Organizations and private galleries in Greece and abroad (USA, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey, Russia). He has also participated in actions of art groups. Her works are in museums, public and private collections in Europe, America and Asia. She lives and works in Athens.
A bilingual catalogue of the same name has been published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Curator of the exhibition.
Duration of the exhibition: 25 August – 30 October 2022

Free admission
Information:
Municipal Gallery of Larissa – G.I. Katsigra Museum.
t. 2410623615
Email:[email protected]
www.katsigrasmuseum.gr