DESTE Foundation and the New Museum of New York, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, present the exhibition In a Bright Green Field, the third in a series of collaborations between the three institutions, with an emphasis on the work of contemporary Greek and Cypriot artists.

Ioanna Limniou, The Musicians, 2024 

The exhibition is part of a long-standing, constant effort by DESTE and Dakis Ioannou to promote contemporary Greek art and Greek and Cypriot artists abroad since the 1980s.

Ioanna Limniou. Girl on a tree

It follows The Same River Twice in 2009 and The Equilibrists in 2016 and echoes earlier projects of both the New Museum and the DESTE Foundation over the past four decades, which turned to contemporary art for answers to the most pressing issues of the day, and reflects the Benaki Museum’s mission as a historical museum invested in bridging the past with the present.

Damianos Zisimou, Installation View, Large red poppy flowers I, 2024
Large red poppy flowers II,2024
Photography by Beeldsmits

The exhibition includes works by twenty-seven artists under the age of 40 exploring possible futures in which renewed relationships with the natural world and open approaches to community could emerge. Although the artists are originally from Greece and Cyprus, they reside and work in various cities across Europe, bringing with them their respective influences.

Eleni Odysseos, Refugium, 2023, photography Mirka Koutsouri

These artists document the tumultuous changes in work and the physical landscape that technology is accelerating, while at the same time highlighting the new forms of collectivity that emerge in both urban and rural life.

Konstantza Kapsali, Elsa&Olga, 2023 (still), Courtesy the artist

Covering a broad spectrum from lyrical painting and sculpture to experimental documentary and community performance, In a Bright Green Field is about an art that can serve as a model for myriad possible futures.

Despina Sanida Crezia, From the performance Down to Under (2023) presented at MIR Festival 2023, copyright Giorgos Athanasiou

The exhibition is curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator at the New Museum.