MYRTO XANTHOPOULOU – ETERNAL FAN | ΤHE ART ATHINA 2025 YOUNG ARTIST AWARD

Words and materials, memories and dreams circulate through the space of MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona in Thissio, Athens. The solo exhibition eternal fan by Myrto Xanthopoulou, recipient of the Art Athina 2025 Young Artist Award, is presented in the museum’s temporary exhibition space from 10 September to 25 October 2026.

Language, both as a means of expression and as an artistic tool, lies at the core of Xanthopoulou’s research and experimentation. Her interest in language is also informed by her own bilingual background. She has developed an idiosyncratic archive of words and expressions, improvised poems and fragmentary sentences that evoke imagined everyday conversations or elliptical inner monologues. At the same time, she is drawn to misunderstandings, puns and different forms of wordplay. In parallel, Xanthopoulou systematically collects a wide range of disposable and construction materials, different types of paper—which she works on with glue, acrylics and spray paint—as well as single-use objects gathered from the city, her home and her studio. These used, discarded materials of everyday life become, together with language, the primary “materials” of her compositions. The works emerge through a demanding and time-consuming manual process that invariably requires the artist’s direct physical engagement.

Drawings, installations and constructions of medium and large scale come together to form a single visual environment. The works appear to remain standing only just—and therein lies their strength: in the need to hold their ground even within a condition of instability and uncertainty. The exhibition is organised within the framework of the ongoing collaboration between the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), the Hellenic Art Galleries Association and Art Athina for the Young Artist Award, an initiative aimed at supporting and promoting the work of emerging contemporary artists. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, with the support of Art Athina.

Curator: Giannis Bolis, Art Historian, Head of the Department of Contemporary Sculpture, MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona | The Art Athina 2025 Young Artist Award

Myrto Xanthopoulou, represented by CITRONNE Gallery, is the recipientof the Art Athina 2025 Young Artist Award. Established by Art Athina in2022 in collaboration with the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), the award seeks to support and encourage contemporary artistic practice. Artists up to the age of 45 who live and work in Greece are eligible for nomination by the gallery that represents them, where they must have presented at least one solo exhibition.

Following the assessment of fourteen nominations submitted by participating galleries, Myrto Xanthopoulou was   “Her practice has developed with consistency and coherence and is distinguished by the breadth and multiplicity of its artistic media—installations, constructions, drawings, video and performance. Reflective in approach, while at times melancholic or playful in tone, she creates environments through small gestures, overturning and transforming the givens of reality.”

The Art Athina 2026 Young Artist Award will be announced at a special event taking place as part of this year’s Art Athina programme, held from 12 to 16 November 2026 at Onassis Ready.

Artist Biography

Myrto Xanthopoulou was born in Helsinki in 1981 and grew up in Athens, where she lives and works. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 2004 to 2009. In 2009, she presented her graduation project at the School’s Third Painting Studio: an installation using ordinary, inexpensive materials and exploring writing as a  narrative of everyday experience.

These concerns have remained central to her artistic practice ever since, while her work has expanded to encompass video and performance. She has presented seven solo exhibitions in Athens and has participated in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, collaborating with galleries, museums and independent art spaces. In 2020, she was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (visual arts). In 2025, her first artist book, terma Asklipiou, was published, and she received the Art Athina Young Artist Award.
Myrto Xanthopoulou is represented by CITRONNE Gallery.

INFO

Myrto Xanthopoulou – eternal fan
Art Athina 2025 Young Artist Award
MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona
5 Agion Asomaton Square, Thissio, Athens

Opening: Thursday, 10 September 2026, 20:00
Exhibition dates: 10 September – 25 October 2026
Opening hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 10:00–18:00
Thursday: 12:00–20:00
Monday: closed

Website: www.momus.gr