The Boundless Sea, The Hidden, The Revealed
Curated by: Nayia Yiakoumaki and Natasha Lemos
Hamidiye Mosque, Castle of Chios, Chios, Greece
28.08 – 28.09.2024
From her studio in London, from which she has produced a rich oeuvre of sculpture, painting and installation art, Kalliopi Lemos exhibits for the first time in Chios. The show, to be held in the Hamidiye Mosque, includes new work created specially for it.
Twelve new oils on wood partly covered in resin and three new oils on canvas are presented in dialogue with three pieces from the series Ritual Garments (2020-2022) which were exhibited at the Fourth Biennale of Autun in France (the International Festival of Contemporary Religious Art), the Dordrecht Museum in Holland and the Gazelli Art House in Baku.
This exhibition in the Hamidiye Mosque is intended by Kalliopi Lemos as an act of homage to Chios, her native land and to England, her other homeland where she has worked tirelessly for many years. It is specially dedicated to the Hellenic Centre in London, which since 1994 has done so much for the dissemination of Greek culture from its base in the heart of the capital.
A recurrent theme in the work of Kalliopi Lemos is the sea of Chios, the sea that brings together people from the two shores of the Aegean, just as it brought together her own forebears from Chios and Anatolia. Standing out in all her work is the female form that keeps a firm hand on the tiller both in the tempests and in the calm of the restless sea. In the work of Kalliopi Lemos this sea is an image also of the restless soul, the longing for redemption and for fulfillment.
The exhibition is hosted by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chios in collaboration with the North Aegean Region and is organized under the auspices of the Hellenic Centre, London.