Nude

Nude by Christina Papavasileiou.

You can find out more about Papavasileiou's work here.

Armenian Architecture

 

 

 

 

Armenian Architecture at the Melina Cultural Centre, Thisio, Athens.

 

 

 



 

 

Housed in an old hat factory, this is an impressive building. We came upon the exhibition by chance, and decided to go in and have a look and were not disappointed. Most of the buildings were monasteries or churches and what surprised us the most was the fact that the majority seemed to be in totally deserted places, in the middle of nowhere. The buildings were very old, the colour of the stone and roof tiles very mellow after all those centuries, and I just loved the shape of some of those roofs. The landscape was breathtaking.

 

The Holy Mother of God Church of Areni, 1321d.

 

Monastery of Noravank, 13-17th century

 



 

 

 

Monastery of Gandzasar of Artsakh, 1236d

 



 

 

 

Sanahin Monastery, 10-12th century

 

 

 

 

Sanahin Monastery, Western View of Three Nave Narthex, 1211d

 

 



 

 

Marmashen Monastery, 1029d

 

Garni. Columned Basalts

 



 

 

 

The ruins of the bridge of the Akhurian river and convent monastery, 13th century

 

 

 

Lake Van and Aghtanar island

 

 



 

 

 

Church of the Holy Mother of God, Odzun, 16th century

 

 

Mt Arafat from Azat Reservoir.

The art trail - 3

One of the first things I like to do when we get to Athens is walk around the Kolonaki area and visit various private galleries to see what's on. And this is what we did last week:

First visit, Zoumboulaki Gallery, the shop, rather than the gallery in the square, which I had visited the night before and which you can see here

The window display is always very enticing, and it features a painting by Giorgos Avgeros: you can see more of his paintings in the link above

a closer look

I preferred the old shop which was across the road, I don't think this one is anything as interesting.

Then we moved across the road to the Benaki, the shop to the museum's latest annex.

(I don't know what it is about this building, but every time I photograph it, the photograph reminds me of an Edward  Hopper painting - is it the colour of the stone, is it the windows? I don't know)

It's a gorgeous shop that sells ceramics, prints, jewellery, books and has a whole children's section

a print by Costas Koulendianos (a pity about the reflection)

A gorgeous bowl by Theodora Horafa - you can see more of her work here. It's impossible to capture the magnificence of the surface of this bowl in a photograph. I don't know how Horafa does it, but there is a silkiness, a glow to the glaze of this bowl that I have not encountered before. Horafa  experiments with surface and comes up with some stunning results - the ceramics shown in the link above for instance, look like they're made from papier mache. Such skill and vision and imagination! One of my favourite ceramicists who is always ready to experiment and invariably gets it right.

 and another one - a different form.

The pomegranates look gorgeous against the black

Fragile ceramics by Margarita Ecclesiarchou - you can see more of her work here

Interesting street art just across the road

 



Quite a long walk through Kolonaki and we reached Haritos Street, and Gallery Genesis

 

Dimitris Gianellos, There's a Killer on the Road (ink and charcoal on paper)

 

 

 

 

Anna Abariotou, An Actor out Alone III  (charcoal on paper)

 

 

 

Anna Abariotou, An Actor Out Alone II (charcoal on paper)

 

Nikolas Christoforakis, Into the House we're Born (mixed media) 

 

 

 

 

Andreas Georgiades, Calm Before the Storm, (oil on wood) 

 

 

 

 

Giorgos Samsonides, Symphony (oil on wood) 

 

  

 

 

On the way back to Syntagma Square to catch our bus we stopped at Martinos, Pindarou Street

 

nice iron gates 

 

 

 

 

Glass vase by Andrea Anastasio, 1990 

 

 

 

 

Kita, by Marco Zanini, 1986

 

 

 

 

Articolo 6000, by Ettore Sotsass, 1991 

 

 

 

Landscape, by Vassilis Fotopoulos, 1995 (oil on canvas)

Landscape, by Vassilis Fotopoulos, 1995.

Not as planned....

We decided to visit the Benaki Museum on Pireos Street last Wednesday but found it closed when we got there. I managed to get in and found someone who told me that the museum was now closed on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 'Are things that bad now?' I asked him. 'Worse than you could possibly imagine', was his answer. The Benaki, with 5 annexes in Athens, each catering for different kinds of art, is for me, the best museum in the city - it's the equivalent of the Tate in Britain. That it should be closed for 3 days a week is a tragedy, particularly as tickets for individual exhibitions cost between three and five euros - not an excessive amount, but then, who am I to judge?

 

So instead we walked along the railway lines on to the plateia in Gazi, across Odos Pireos up Irakleidon Street which affords good views of the Acropolis

 

 

 

and came up to Apostolou Paulou Street, which is full of cafes, bars and restaurants as well as a few remaining Neo-Classical buildings like the two above

 

loads of people about, lots of street sellers and Lycabettus hill in the distance

 

 



 

it's a nice area to walk around in as there's lots to see

We walked through Adrianou Street and came to Monastiraki, this dilapidated building being our destination

Metamatic:taf gallery, that I discovered last time we were in Greece - you can see more about it here

the courtyard with the café looks very different in winter, due to the tent that is erected above

 

One of the exhibitions that was one was Favela by Stigma Squad

 

 

 

and like last time, the building just bawled me over.

Back in the courtyard, up the stairs

 

and the second exhibition, Up by Create An Accident

 



 

 

 

Up being the appropriate word as the whole of the exhibition was installed on the ceiling, with cushions on the floor so that one could lie down and look up

 

 

 

the café looked good from the first floor

 

  

and the weathered terracotta roof tiles looked fabulous

 

We then walked back to Adrianou Street for a delicious lunch at Kuzina

 



 

 

it was still very early so most tables were empty

 

but we enjoyed people watching

 



 

 

as well as train watching - look at all that graffiti

 

and views of the Acropolis.

 

 

 

After lunch we walked towards Syntagma square and our bus, and saw another beautiful Neo-Classical building on Adrianou Street

 

part of the ancient Agora

 



 

 

the old Mosque which is a museum now

the mosque again

Monastiraki square which is always full of people since the recent restructuring, with the old Byzantine church at the end of it.