The Hellenic American Union presents the first solo painting exhibition by artist Nikos Kanoglou, entitled The Absence of the Present, curated by the artistic group Xylinos Ippéas, of which the artist is a founding member.

The exhibition opens on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., at the Kennedy Gallery of the Hellenic American Union (22 Massalias Street, Athens) and will run until February 28, 2026.

The exhibition consists of a series of works in which human and animal forms, as well as mythological motifs, reappear as forms of memory and experience. At the core of the artistic process lies drawing and monochrome, as the fundamental principle of the work, which is reconstructed and reactivated through successive transparencies and layers of material. In the works, human, animal, and mythical symbols do not appear as narratives or scenes, but as traces that seem to have passed through time. The image is not offered as a momentary impression; it asks the viewer to stand and coexist with it.

Kanoglou uses materials such as graphite, Indian ink, mineral powders, dead matter, and collages, creating surfaces where form diffuses, is absorbed, and reappears. Time is not presented as something that is measured, but as something that is experienced: as waiting, as pause, as silent duration.

The Absence of the Present is a different viewing experience. An experience in which the gaze is not called upon to conquer the image, but to remain within it. Where it is not the solid substance of form that is captured, but the trace of the image; an imprint that persists after certainty has departed.