Fellow Field: Visual arts

Konstantinos Kotsis (b. 1989, Athens) is a visual artist, with a bachelor and master degree from the department of Fine Arts and Sciences of Art, of the School of Fines Arts (University of Ioannina, Greece). He has also attended UFR Arts, Philosophie, Esthétique department at the University Paris 8, Paris. As an artist Konstantinos Kotsis has a special interest in handmade crafts. Such work has been exhibited in several group shows in Greece and abroad. The important among them are the following: «Constellations In The Dirt» (2018, ΝEON, Koufonisi Archaeological Collection), «Acropolis At The Bottom» (2018, Nikos Kessanlis Hall, Athens School Of Fine Arts, Athens), «Notes On Division», «The Kids Want Communism Third Installment» (2017, Museum Of Bat Yam, Tel Aviv), «In The Mouth Of The Wolf. Die Wolf, Die» (2014, House Of Cyprus, Embassy Of Cyprus, Athens).

Maria Mavropoulou was born in 1989 and she lives and works in Athens. Ιn 2018 she completed her MFA at Athens School of Fine Arts, from where she got her BA in 2014. She has studied painting and sculpture, although her main medium is photography. Her work has been presented in exhibitions in Greece and abroad and published in various magazines. Maria Mavropoulou also works as a freelance photographer specializing in architecture and interior photography and she is a contributing photographer for Τhe New York Times.

Marina Papadaki, born in 1991, is an Athens-based artist. She has a BA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual and Applied Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2015) and an MFA in Fine Arts from Luca School of Arts in Brussels (2018). She is the founder of the Hydroexpress Project in Kaminia, Piraeus, and the editor of Hydroexpress Project Publication. She was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS. She has participated in exhibitions and artist residences in Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine, Poland, Belgium, Serbia, and Romania. Something that is strongly reflected in the body of her work is the conceptual visualisation of social mechanisms and inequalities. With references to the socio-political system, through her work, she seeks to awaken critical thinking and to remind us of the position we take as individuals — with everything that it might entail. Key Words such as social space, institutionalization, (social) boundaries, human production – reproduction, otherness, identity, discrimination, exclusion etc. are at the epicentre, and are repeated in her art research and practice by using different types of mediums, such as painting, installations, videos, digital prints, et al. As an extension of her research, she worked at the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica. Her work has also been presented at conferences about “socially engaged art” at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the House of Representatives of Cyprus.

Spiros Kokkonis was born in 1992 in Athens, Greece where he currently lives and works. In 2016 he co-founded Grace/ Athens artist-run space. His work is defined by the identification of his practice and his artwork’s substance. Surrounded by a very specific environment, its’ political, social and cultural directions, the artist is creating images influenced by – and connected to it. While the surrounding environment is the subject and the reason for his practice, it is also seen as a never-ending material source. Throughout his process, the artist is exploiting existing forms and their meanings, to create new images based on what has previously been made, said or done. From steel and concrete to visual appropriation, a list of readymades (archives, spaces, images, sounds and objects) are being mixed, reformed and translated into sculptures, installations, and videos that aim to imprint a personal say. A personal aspect of the outward environment, that is wavering between feelings of embracement and hope to enmity and despair. His work has been exhibited in Athens Conservatoire, Parko Eleftherias, Art Space Pythagoreion, SHED London, Grace / Athens and Onassis Cultural Centre.

Alexandra/Sasha Streshna was born in 1987 in Lviv, Soviet Ukraine and she has been living in Athens since 1999. She is a graduate of Athens School of Fine Arts (2011) and has obtained a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Central Saint Martins, London (2014) on a Sp. Vikatos Foundation Scholarship. In 2016 she received Jannis Spyropoulos Award. In 2019 she presented her first solo exhibition titled HELLO! curated by Ilias Papailiakis at space52 (Athens). Her practice and research are both concerned with figurative painting using oil on canvas. Her work refers to western history painting tradition, while depictions of violence and power are amongst the recurring themes.

Despina Flessa was born in Athens in 1986. She graduated from Athens School of Fine Arts in 2012. In 2010 she studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and in 2015 she completed her Master of Fine Arts (MET) in Athens. She had her first solo exhibition, ”Substratum”, at the Zoumboulakis Gallery (2016), followed by a solo exhibition, ”Float”, at the Pop/off/art Gallery in Moscow (2017). In 2017 she represented Greece at the International Women’s Day Exhibition organized by UNESCO at the Salle des pas perdus & Espaces Miró in Paris. She has also participated in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. She lives and works in Athens.

Alexis Fidetzis was born in Athens in 1987. He studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Munich Kunstakademie while he got his MFA at the Pratt Institute as an Onassis scholar in New York City where he focused on research-based artistic practices. He got his second master’s degree on modern Greek history at the School of Philosophy in the University of Athens. He is currently a doctoral candidate at ASFA. Fidetzis uses historical research as a means of artistic creation in an effort to diagnose current social, cultural and political issues. He is interested in the institutional management of collective social trauma alongside the ways in which power structures shape our common past. For his work he has been awarded by institutions in Greece and abroad, including the Onassis and Niarchos Foundations, while his work has been presented in group and solo exhibitions in Greece, France, Germany, Switzerland and the USA.

Pavlos Tsakonas (b.1983) is a visual artist who lives and works in Athens, Greece. He studied fine arts in the Athens School Of Fine Arts (2008). In his work we find mainly painting mediums that develop in different sizes and surfaces while his subjects explore a wide range of polar concepts, references and sources.He has presented three solo exhibitions (GKart, 2011, CAN gallery, 2013 & 2017), large scale works in public space in collaboration with ASKT (2011), Athens and Epidaurus Festival (2019) and other interventions in private spaces. In 2018 he was selected by the 1st SNF Artist Fellowship Program by ARTWORKS. He has participated in numerous group exhibition such as “Lustlands vol.III”, curated by N.Argyropoulou, Greece(2013), “Parallel Vienna”,Kunstraum am Shauplatz, Austria (2014),”Something Of Exquisite Beauty”, Elika gallery, Athens (2016),”Shell, Politics Of Being”, curated by K.Prapoglou,(2018), “In Total Light”, Allouche Benias gallery, Athens (2019), “Overview Effect”, TiFF, MoMus, Thessaloniki,(2019),”To Construct the Gender”, curated by G.Kalyvis, AAntonopoulou gallery, Athens(2019),”Against The Linear” curated by K.Lianos, KEIV, Athens (2021).

Angelos Tzortzinis is a photographer. He was born in Athens (1984), where he studied at the Leica Academy. Angelo’s work has won many awards, such as Best Photographer from Time Magazine 2015, Magnum Foundation, Photos of the Year (POYi), Sony World Photography Award (Professional Current Affairs category), Visa pour l’image. Since 2007 he has been working as a freelancer in Athens.

Stefania Strouza was born in Zakynthos and works as a visual artist in Athens and Vienna. She studied Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and completed her postgraduate studies at the Art, Space & Nature Institute of Edinburgh College of Art (2010) and at the Textual Sculpture Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (2015). Her sculptural work explores cultural paradigms such as Mediterranean modernism, using both environmental metaphors like watercourses, to examine the intercultural combinations that arise from the exchange of goods and ideas over long distances. Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, among others at the 6th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau, Germany, Wiener Art Foundation, Austria (solo), Neue Galerie Innsbruck, Austria (solo), Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2014, Greece (solo), Bozar, Belgium, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece,. In 2016 she was a fellow at the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau and the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies at Princeton University. In 2018 she was a resident at Studio Residency in Mexico City with a scholarship from the Austrian Ministry of Culture as well as at Mana Contemporary New Jersey.

Anastasis Stratakis (born 1985) lives and works in Thessaloniki. His work has been included in international group exhibitions such as: “At the Beginning Was the Word”, National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, in collaboration with the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2018); “Abracadabra”, 6th International Biennale (2018), “Epilogue”, Kunstverein Herdecke, curated by Apostolos Palavrakis (2017); “The Equilibrists”, in New Museum, New York and DESTE Foundation, Athens, in collaboration with Benaki Museum, Athens, curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Helga Christoffersen with Massimiliano Gioni (2016); Les Rencontres Internationales, Gaîté lyrique, Paris (2015); 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2014); “By New: A New Generation of Greek Artists”, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2013); Center οf Contemporary Art at Thessaloniki (2017); Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon (2016); Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice (2015); Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2014). His works are included in important private and public art collections such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, the Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul and Michael Haas Collection in Berlin.

Βοrn in Athens, in 1989. She works in film and video: she does video installations and short fiction films. She graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Athens. She has shown her work in film festivals and art venues.

Born in 1990. He lives and works in Athens. He studied International, European and Regional Studies at Panteion University and Visual Arts and Illustration at the Camberwell College of Arts with a scholarship from the University of the Arts London. He has had solo exhibitions in Athens, London and Malta (Plantarium-Esplora Science Center, Valletta18; Notions of the Afterlife-Genesis Gallery London; Animistic Futurism-Vessel Athens; Zadig with Cacao Rocks-Sarri 12 Gallery) and has participated in numerous exhibitions and festivals in Greece and abroad (Hors Pistes-Centre d’Innovation et du Design Grand Hornu, Belgium; Hors Pistes Nuuk Museum, Nuuk, Greenland; Loures Arte Publica, Lisbon, Portugal;, Besiktas International Festival, Istanbul, Turkey; ”No Respect”, Onassis Cultural Center, Athens, Greece; Creative Climate Awards, Human Impact Institute, New York; Susak Croatia Biennale, etc.) In 2018 He received the Fulbright Artist Residency Award/Fellowship and ARTWORKS SNF Artist Fellowship.

Maria Sideri is a performance artist. Influenced by her studies in anthropology and in different research methods, her work focuses on representations of the body through archival research. Maria has graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the University of Ioannina and from the postgraduate department of History of Religions at the University of Geneva. In 2012 she also completed (with distinction) her MFA at the Creative Practice at the Laban Conservatory of Music and Dance in London. She has received sponsorship from the Arts Council of England for the Vibrant Matter/La Métachorie project and recently she was awarded the ARTWORKS Fellowship (2018). Since March 2018 she has been a PhD candidate at the University of Western Macedonia in the Department of Applied and Visual Arts. Works: ”Hello World Choir” (Cairo 07/17), “Vibrant Matter/La Metachorie”: Artsadmin (London, 11/14), ”Rag Factory” (London, 2/14), 3rd Performance Festival, (4th Biennale, Greece 11/2013); “Stasis” with Zero-Tau: SPILL National Platform (Ipswich, 11/12), Trouble festival (Brussels, 4/13), Video: Chisenhale Dance Space Agony Art (London, 1/14), 3/14), Trip Space The Palest Light (London 5/14), Decoda Festival (Coventrym 6/14), and limited edition Fanzine # 1, # 2, # 3 “It Comes Into Waves”.

Fotis Sagonas (born in 1983, Thermo, Central Greece) is a visual artist and architect. He lives and works in Thessaloniki and in Athens. His work includes drawings, prints and installations. His visual art research and practice is interdisciplinary and involves representation systems, virtual environments, data visualization and digital fabrication techniques. Through his works he attempts to create narratives, where the relationship of the observer with the depicted subject is being destabilized. Since 2018 he has been teaching visual arts and computer design at the department of Architectural Engineering at the University of Ioannina. In 2012 he received a Fulbright Scholarship for Visual Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has had four solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous group shows in Greece and abroad. Solo exhibitions: 2016: “Fotis Sagonas: Recent Works”, Donopoulos IFA, Thessaloniki curated by Apostolos Palavrakis, 2012: “Landscapes of Vanity”, Blanc Slate Space, Frankfurt curated by Alexis Tsolakis 2010: “Ink & Blood / Volume 1”, Kalos & Klio showroom, Thessaloniki, 2009: “Inside the Animal’s Mind”, Dynamo Project Space, Thessaloniki, curated by Apostolos Kalfopoulos.

Group exhibitions (selection): 2018: “Art Thessaloniki” Donopoulos IFA, Thessaloniki PNOI / Greek Emerging Artists curated by Miguel Fernández Belmonte, 2018: “SideEffects 5.0”, SideEffects gallery, Basel, curated by Patricia Meyer, 2017: Epilogue, Kunstverein Herdecke, Herdecke: Rita McBride, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Maria Kriara, Heribert C. Ottersbach, Anastasis Stratakis] curated by Apostolos Palavrakis, 2015: “Art Athina”, Donopoulos IFA, Athens [participants: Aljioscha, Nikos Aslanidis, Gehard Demetz, Christopher Dougheris, Wolf Hamm Lia Kazakou, Mark Lammert, Giorgos Lappas, Adrianna Molder, Marc Mulders, Vassilis Poulios, Philip Tsiaras,] 2014: “In Between Out”, Donopoulos IFA, Thessaloniki [participants: George Charvalias, Apostolos Palavrakis, Kai Richter] curated by Apostolos Plavarakis, 2012: “Hypothese zur Entrstehung” by Aljoscha, Beck and Eggeling Gallery, Düsseldorf [collective installation in collaboration with visual artist Aljoscha].

Panos Profitis (born in 1988) lives and works in Athens. He holds a postgraduate degree (2016) from the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp specialized in site specific arts / installation art. He is a graduate of the School of Fine Arts of Athens (2013). For his Master studies, he received a scholarship from NEON (2015-2016). For his graduate thesis he was awarded the Hugo Roelandt Award by the Royal Academy of Arts, Hugo Roelandt Estate and Objectif Antwerp in 2016. Profitis has recently become an ARTWORKS Fellow (SNF Artist Fellowship Program 2018). In October 2018 he participated in the Initiator Artist in Residency program in Elefsina (Cultural Capital of Europe in 2021). In 2013 he represented Greece at the Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Ancona, Italy. During Documenta 14 he worked as an assistant artist of the Nigerian visual artist Otobong Enkanga who is based in Antwerp. In 2017 he held his first solo exhibition at Annie Gentils Gallery in Antwerp (Belgium) and participated with this gallery at various art fairs (Art Rotterdam, YIA Maastricht, Art Brussels). His work has been presented in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.

Valia Papastamou (born in 1987) studied Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and continued postgraduate studies at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Master in Cultural Management) and at the School of Fine Arts in Athens (MFA). She has had two solo exhibitions: one at the Contemporary Art Center Ileana Tounta, “Phonologic Minerals”, in the framework of the two-person exhibition “Two Person Show-Maria Tzanakou & Valia Papastamou” (2017) and another at Two Elephants, Heraklion, ”Come Back to the House Where Nobody Lives”. She has participated in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including: “Caritas Romana-15 Acts of Devotion”, Center of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, as part of the 59th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2018); “Art Athina 2018″,, Contemporary Art Center Ileana Tounta Booth; Athens Conservatory (2018), ”Impulses of Inalienability”, Eins Gallery, Limassol (2018), Rooms 2017 plus +, Kappatos Gallery (2017); ”Rooms 2017”, St George Lycabettus (2017); “Distant Utopias”, in the framework of “Utopia 500″, at Onassis Cultural Center Athens (”Stegi”) in collaboration with the School of Fine Arts of Athens, Diplareios School (2016).

Maria Papanikolaou is a visual artist and postdoctoral fellow at the Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA). She studied law at the University of Athens (IKY, 2000) and sculpture at the Royal Academy of Art in the Netherlands as a Huygens Scholarship Program scholar (2008). In 2011, she graduated from the Postgraduate Program in Fine Arts (ASFA) and, in 2022, she supported her PhD thesis at the same school with a scholarship from the Onassis Foundation (2012-2016), the Foundation for Education and European Culture (2013-2017), the A. G. Leventis Foundation (2015) and the Fulbright Foundation (2016-2017).

The exhibition Free from what (annexM, 2023) is her first solo exhibition in Greece. She has held solo shows in the Netherlands, at Expodium (Utrecht, 2007) and Filmhuis den Haag (The Hague, 2008). She has also participated in group exhibitions, including: Still Here Tomorrow, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre (2019), Athens Adhocracy, Onassis Cultural Centre (2015), Expanded Senses, Museum of Applied Arts, Frankfurt (2015), Afresh: A New Generation of Greek Artists (EMST, 2013), Art ID at KunstVLAAI (Amsterdam, 2008). In 2015, she received the Open Call Prize at the Frankfurt Biennale of the Moving Image, Frankfurt.

She teaches at ASFA and the University of Thessaly and since 2023 she is Fulbright Greece Outreach Ambassador in the field of visual arts.

Nefeli Papadimouli (1988, Athens) lives and works in Athens and Paris. She studied Architecture at the NTUA and Fine Arts at the Beaux-Arts de Paris (with honors). Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions in institutions, museums and galleries such as Thessaloniki Center for Contemporary Art (State Museum of Contemporary Art), Festival de l’histoire de l’art, Château de Fontainebleau, La Panacée, Montpellier (2018), Musée du Louvre, Palais des Beaux Arts, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 6th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2017); Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (2016); Istanbul Modern (2015). She was artist-in-residence at the Villa Belleville-Paris and currently she is at RAVI-Liège.