From Pharmacy Counter to Canvas: Emilio Papaevangeliou’s First Solo Exhibition ‘In Between’

Emilio Papaevangeliou is a pharmacist who paints as instinctively as he breathes. His debut exhibition at the European Centre Athens (Jan. 24–Feb. 15) brings together 60 works —created almost exclusively with ballpoint pen—a visual journey through the worlds he inhabits and the space between them

19.01.2026 16:23

Culture

Newsroom

From Pharmacy Counter to Canvas: Emilio Papaevangeliou’s First Solo Exhibition ‘In Between’

19.01.2026 16:23

Culture

Newsroom

Emilio Papaevangeliou is a pharmacist who paints as instinctively as he breathes. His debut exhibition at the European Centre Athens (Jan. 24–Feb. 15) brings together 60 works —created almost exclusively with ballpoint pen—a visual journey through the worlds he inhabits and the space between them

Emilio Papaevangelou stands between the pharmacy counter and the canvas. Between logic and instinct, the demands of everyday professional life and a deep, persistent need for artistic expression.

It is within this “in between” space that Papaevangelou creates. For the first time, he steps beyond the boundaries of his pharmacy—also his studio—and beyond Lokrida in central Greece, where he lives and works, to present his debut solo exhibition in Athens. Titled In Between, the exhibition will be hosted at European Centre Athens from January 24 to February 15.

Pharmacists and artist Emilio Papaevangeliou.

More than 60 works will be on display, created almost exclusively with ballpoint pen. Some are drawn on pages torn from monthly desk calendars, others on canvas. Together, they invite viewers into a personal visual world.

The dualities that define Papaevangeliou’s life and practice—Italy and Greece, artist and pharmacist, abstraction and figuration, small and large scale—unfold across the exhibition. These contrasts narrate not only the story of a painter balancing two parallel worlds, but also an autonomous artistic journey that has developed steadily and with confidence.

“I want my painting to reflect human existence and faith, with rationality but also with dynamism,” Papaevangeliou says, summarising the core of his work.

Exhibition curator Elisavet Plessa highlights the artist’s distinctive technique and the unconventional studio housed within his pharmacy:

“His choice of materials—primarily ballpoint pen, alongside dozens of pens, nibs, markers, pencils and acrylics, on paper or canvas—is not arbitrary. It emerges from a given condition that transforms practical necessity into a creative process with specific surfaces and pigments. Rather than restricting him, it offers a framework of freedom within which his painting naturally finds its own language.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated bilingual (Greek–English) catalogue. As part of the programme, visitors will have the opportunity to meet and converse with both the artist and the curator during guided walkthroughs of the exhibition space.

Admission is free.