Always the Sun: Greek Contemporary Art
On view at the Riga Contemporary Art Space from October 2, 2026 to January 10, 2027
Riga Contemporary Art Space presents Always the Sun, an exhibition curated by Marina Fokidis. On view from October 2, 2026, to January 10, 2027, it brings together a constellation of 27 Greek artists whose practices are shaped by the interplay of geography, light, climate, and cultural legacy. It is the first large-scale presentation of contemporary Greek art in the Baltic region. Drawing inspiration from the song by The Stranglers, the exhibition approaches the sun not as a motif, but as a medium of thought, perception, and lived experience. It explores how the brightness, heat, and exposure of the Mediterranean have influenced aesthetic languages and fostered strategies of survival, intimacy, and adaptation.
Kostis Velonis. The Gravity of the Sun. Wood, metal, acrylic, oil, 130x110x29 cm, 2023–2024 / Courtesy of The Breeder and the artist
The curator Marina Fokidis emphasizes: “The sun. Not the picturesque Mediterranean sun of tourist brochures, nor the luminous ideal inherited from modernist painting, but the sun as both a metaphor and a lived reality: a force that regulates daily rhythms, shapes public space, and influences the ways people meet, rest, work, and inhabit their cities. What does it mean to live under a particular light? How might weather influence artistic production as profoundly as history, politics, or language?”
For Riga, a northern city where sunlight is often fleeting, this exhibition offers an encounter with a southern sensibility: not exotic, but grounded, material, and spiritual. It imagines a solar dialogue between North and South, Baltic and Mediterranean, as a conversation rather than an opposition. It proposes light not only as a symbol, but also as a form of knowledge. In ancient Greek thought, light illuminated truth, but the southern sun, unlike the colder light of the Northern Enlightenment, is contradictory. It dazzles, reveals, and blinds. It asks us not to observe from a distance, but to feel, inhabit, and listen.
On October 1 at 18:30, Dream Coat, a performance by Nefeli Papadimouli, will mark the exhibition’s opening.
On October 2 at 16:00, the public talk Athens in Focus: Today and Looking Back. The Role of the Artist and the Collector in Times of Crisis will feature curator Marina Fokidis, art collector Irene Y. Panagopoulos, and artists Bill Balaskas and Kostis Velonis. The discussion will be moderated by Arterritory.com Editor-in-Chief Una Meistere.
Bill Balaskas. Culture. Neon, electrical cables, variable dimensions, edition 2/3, 2013 / Courtesy of Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection and the artist
The exhibition features works by Andreas Angelidakis, Bill Balaskas, Panos Charalambous, Dimitra Charamandas, Christina Dimitriadis, Anastasia Douka, Apostolos Georgiou, Marina Gioti, Maria Hassabi, Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Panos Koutrouboussis, Aliki Paliou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Eftihis Patsourakis, Angelo Plessas, Theo Prodromidis, Panos Profitis, Georgia Sagri, Serapis Maritime, Socratis Socratous, Stefania Strouza, Iris Touliatou, Panos Tsagaris, Jannis Varelas, Kostis Velonis, Paky Vlassopoulou.
Marina Fokidis is a curator, writer, lecturer, and institution-maker based in Athens, Greece. Her extensive curatorial experience includes serving as curator of the 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale in 2011, commissioner and curator of the Greek Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, and co-curator of the 1st Tirana Biennial in 2001.
In 2010, amidst the Greek economic crisis, she founded the independent space Kunsthalle Athena to reflect on the social role of art institutions in the 21st century, moving beyond the presentation of exhibitions toward the co-production of culture. In 2012, she founded South as a State of Mind, a biannual arts and culture journal that creates unexpected dialogues between different neighbourhoods, cities, regions, and approaches. In 2014, she joined the core team of documenta 14 at the invitation of artistic director Adam Szymczyk. In 2023, she was appointed curator of the main thematic section of ARCO Madrid, where she conceived and curated the exhibition The Mediterranean: A Round Sea. In 2024, she co-curated SPARK Art Fair Vienna.
The exhibition brings together works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection, the Onassis Collection, and loans from a.antonopoulou.art, CITRONNE Gallery, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Gypsum Gallery, Kalfayan Galleries, Sylvia Kouvali, The Breeder, T H E P I L L ® and the artists themselves.
Always the Sun is supported by the Riga City Council, Riga Investment and Tourism Agency and the Embassy of Greece in Latvia.
***
RIGA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE was founded in 2008 as an exhibition venue of the City of Riga dedicated to the presentation, research, and interpretation of significant artistic developments in contemporary art. The programme of Riga Contemporary Art Space is conceived as a dialogue between local and global narratives, exploring the complexity of contemporary art and its intersections with technology, emotion, memory, and myth.
Title image: Nefeli Papadimouli. Dream Coat. Cotton and wooden structure, 150x160 cm (each), 2023–2025
Courtesy of T H E P I L L ® and the artist © Nefeli Papadimouli, © ADAGP Paris 2026. Photo: © Mirka Koutsouri
