A Double Art Opening at the Hellenic American Union

Athens welcomes autumn’s art season with a double opening tonight at the Hellenic American Union, where two artists — worlds apart in practice yet kindred in spirit — unveil new bodies of work that challenge how we see, feel, and connect.

With free admission and doors opening first at 18:00, visitors are invited to drift between two exhibitions that speak a common language of introspection and transformation.

Letters to El Greco – Costa Lefkochir

At the Kennedy Gallery, Greek-born Belgian artist Costa Lefkochir returns home with Letters to El Greco, curated by Louisa Karapidaki. His abstract compositions pulse with quiet intensity — meditations on faith, identity, and the elusive dialogue between the modern soul and the divine.

Each canvas feels like a missive to El Greco himself. As Karapidaki notes, Lefkochir’s meticulously layered surfaces echo the spiritual topography of the master’s Mount Sinai landscapes, painted in the late 16th century. Far from spontaneous gestures, his brushstrokes are deliberate, contemplative — a painter’s prayer disguised as form.

Organized under the auspices of the Embassy of Belgium, this exhibition celebrates an artist who has spent decades abroad yet continues to paint in the long shadow — and light — of his Greek heritage.

Landscapes of Affinity – Antonis Koutroumpis

One floor away, at the Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas Gallery, the boundaries between stage and canvas blur. Performer, director, and set designer Antonis Koutroumpis steps into the visual arts with Landscapes of Affinity, curated by Elizabeth Plessa, opening at 19:00.

Here, drawings, photographs, and sculptural forms weave a world of movement and silence. Some pieces once served as props or tools for performance; others stand alone — silent actors in their own right. Together, they chart the emotional choreography of an artist who moves effortlessly between theater and visual art, revealing the pulse and poetry behind his creative process.

Koutroumpis’s work invites viewers not to observe but to inhabit — to feel the resonance between gesture and image, body and object, imagination and memory.