Zoumboulakis Gallery is delighted to present Nikos Topalidis’s first solo exhibition titled “A walk along the shore”, opening on September 19, 2023.

Apostolis Artinos, writer and curator, writes in his text “The night of images”: “In the exhibition “A walk along the shore” of Nikos Topalidis, successive layers of graphite on paper make up a nocturnal atmosphere. Dark horizons, with the relief of their reality derived from the carvings made by the artist on this dense, gloomy surface. This silver gloom of the graphite “darkness is our light”, the Greeks would say—is illuminated by traces which gradually reveal to the viewer’s inquisitive gaze, depending on the viewing angle and the position of the light, the resilience of a landscape. Rocky hills descending to the sea. Where else? Seferis would say. Here the gaze persistently seeks out the signs, just as the signs seek out the gaze that will discern them. The paintings of Topalidis are landscapes to explore, surfaces that invite the viewers, their active gaze. Landscapes that change the tonalities of their visibility depending on our own readiness.

Many of Topalidis’s nightscapes are coastlines, that dimly-lit line left by the wave on the sand at night. By the sea, always a borderline, a communication with the beyond, with the dead. These are no idyllic landscapes of life but disquieting settings of an agitated mental state. Scenes in which pages by Shelley and Kleist can be heard to rustle. I hear them! Landscapes that stimulate the negative destiny of romantic people. Their mysterious character substantiates its fatal shadow as well. These images thus become an imagery of the tragic; yet another imagery that measures itself against its ideal forms. There is a typology here of the secret and the shadowy, of non-depiction, that redefines the view on representation. Representations do not heed a mimetic rule; they exhaust themselves at meta-linguistic transcendences. They are images that cannot be described but give substance to their impossible likenesses. Yet they are still objectifications of our world… what else could they be?”.

Works with graphite on paper will be presented.

Exhibition curator: Apostolis Artinos

Short Bio: :

Nikos Topalidis (b. 1985) is a graduate of the Athens School of Fine Arts living and working in Athens. In his practice, he fashions imaginary landscapes out of densely worked pencil drawings and relief fragments. His work has been exhibited in a number of group exhibitions, among others: “Encore – Neo Hellenic painting” (Municipal Art Gallery of Athens, 2023)”, “À fleur d’ image – Oeuvre à travers la matière” (La Châtaigneraie, Flamalle, Belgium, 2023), Thalassa – The sea in Greek art from antiquity until today (Shanghai Museum, 2022), Rooms 2016 (St George Lycabettus Hotel, Athens), and Kodra Fresh (Action field Kodra, Thessaloniki, 2011). In 2014, he attended the Time and Tide workshop at the city of Escalles in France, in collaboration the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp. He has been awarded first prize at the Biennale of Fine Arts Students in Greece by the B. & M. Theocharakis foundation (2014) and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks 2022. The exhibition “A walk along the shore” is the artist’s first solo exhibition.

Duration of the exhibition:  September 14 – October 7, 2023

Opening hours: Tue., Thu. & Fri. 11.00 – 20.00

Wed., Sat. 11.00 -15.00

Sundays & Mondays closed