The Ghika Gallery Shop presents the exhibition of the ceramist Eleni Kanellopoulou as part of the series “Kriezotou 3 window. An artist exhibits”.

Working with red clay with decorating slips, wax and faience, Eleni creates a lush spring scenery for the window display of Kriezotou 3. Her paintings are always free and unhurried. Roses, poppies and lemons, painted with color stains, intertwine with foliage on the clay, in ever recurring patterns that became her distinctive artistic signature.

A tireless ceramicist from a young age, Kanellopoulou, now 72, proudly declares to be self-taught. Although she no longer works on the wheel herself (her ceramic forms are made by an assistant wheel technician in Marousi), she loves to experiment with a range of tools. Using brushes, sponges and pipette fillers, she works with quick, almost frantic strokes on the ceramic surfaces. In her home-studio, surrounded by hundreds of samples in vibrant colors and floral motifs, she paints, glazes and fires at relatively low temperatures (approx. 1025-1040 °C). She prefers the traditional firing method common in the Mediterranean, as opposed to the stoneware technique.

Her professional journey is undoubtedly intertwined with the Benaki Museum Shop, where her ceramics have been cherished and sold for the past 20 years.

After studying biology, Eleni Kanellopoulou trained in traditional pottery workshops. Today, she runs her own studio. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, has held individual exhibitions, and received a distinction in the Pan-Hellenic exhibition of 1984. She creates useful and decorative objects using traditional techniques combined with contemporary, resistant and non-toxic materials.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by Elytis’s poetry collection “Ek tou Plision”.

 

Ghika Gallery Shop, 3 Kriezotou st., Athens

Duration: 16.04.24 - 14.05.24