Indigo Atelier

A few days ago, while wandering around in Athens, we discovered Indigo Atelier - having another ceramics shop to visit is very exciting. The main exhibition featured work by Elli Sofianopoulou but there was work by other ceramicists too.

Elli Sofianopoulou:

Yria, in Kostos, Paros:

Yria are based in Paroikia on the island of Paros.

Sifnaioko:

From another pottery workshop based on the island of Sifnos.

Stone/Oblivion

Lithos/Lithi (Stone/Oblivion), by Stratigoula Giannikopoulou at Gallery Genesis, Athens.

'I lifted these stones as much as I could bear,
I loved these stones as much as I could bear'.







This exhibition pays tribute to those, who, living and working in remote Greek villages two generations ago, excavated, carried and shaped the stones that they used to build houses, bridges and churches. It's about the hands and tools that made all this building possible.

The tools that accompany the drawings belonged to the artist's grandfather.

The Book of Stones

The Book of Stones, by Yiannis Papadopoulos,

at Kalfayan Galleries, Athens.

I looked at the gallery window as we were approaching, and said to Ken that I thought the gallery must be closed. 'The window could be part of the exhibition', was his reply, and he was right.

The main source of inspiration for this body of work are stones, taken from the river Glafkos which flows near the town of Patras. Papadopoulos collected the stones during the winter when the river was raging and dangerous. 

'There are intellectual activities where it is not the big books but the short monographs or articles that constitute a [man's] achievement. If someone were to discover, for instance, that under hitherto unobserved circumstances stones were able to speak, it would take only a few pages to describe and explain so earth-shattering a phenomenon'. From Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities.

Some more ceramics

The shop at the Hadjikyriakou-Ghika annex of the Benaki Museum.

This is a wonderful shop and one we always visit when we go to Athens. It sells everything you'd expect to find in an art shop, all original, but it's the ceramics that appeal to me the most. Two of my favourite makers exhibit here all the time.

Margarita Ecclesiarchou:

Made using the nerikomi technique

as is this one.





In this video you can see Ecclesiarchou making one of these bowls using the technique

Theodora Horafa:

I would love to own of these huge ceramic bowls but they are very expensive.

Katerina Giarana:

I have not come across the work of Giarana before, it's very pleasing.