City of Athens, through OPANDA, organizes the exhibition “Yannis Fokas: Works 1985 – 2024” at the Athens City Municipal Gallery, from 7 November 2024 to 5 January 2025, curated by Christoforos Marinos.

The exhibition presents the artist’s path since the early 1980s, which ranks him among the most important representatives of contemporary Greek painting.

Fokas’ painting oscillates between speech (communication) and silence, between intensity and calm, between the dreamlike and the real, and finally between representation – the recognisable – and abstraction, since his works were never figurative, nor were they purely abstract. Deep down, at the heart of this painting is man and the issues that concern him. Works such as EmeraldBlue (2016) comment on ecological and immigration issues. Trophies(2015), in which the artist juxtaposes John the Baptist’s head with the severed head of a boar, refers to ISIS executions.

Yannis Fokas studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1973-78) in the workshops of Yannis Moralis and Demosthenes Kokkinidis, and set design with Vassilis Vassiliadis. He continued his studies at the Paris School of Fine Arts (1979-83) in the workshop of Jacques Lagrange. From 1995 to 2018 he was professor of the Dʹ Painting Workshop at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has held more than 25 solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. His works can be found in museums, galleries and private collections in Greece and abroad.

The exhibition is curated by Christoforos Marinos

Duration:7 November 2024 – 5 January  2025

Working Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11:00-19:00, Sundays 10:00-16:00, Mondays closed

The admission is free

City of Athens Municipal Gallery, Building Β

Leonidou & Myllerou, Avdi Square, Metaxourgion

Information: 210 5202420| www.opanda.gr