Creative Εncounters 2022 Kyriakos Rokos – Roubina Sarelakou

This year, the E. Averoff Art Gallery is delighted to host, as part of the "Creative Encounters" institution, two renowned artists and beloved friends of our Gallery: sculptor Kyriakos Rokos and painter-engraver Roubina Sarelakou.

Kyriakos Rokos, who is mostly known as a distinguished sculptor, presents here a different side of his work: a total of 50 drawings on paper from his series “Secret Dispatches 2008-2021” and “Thirty-one drawings and one sculpture in search of a poet”, in which he depicts allegorical and surrealistic images focusing on humankind and humanity’s “intercourse” with the present era of socioeconomic crisis. These drawings constitute an independent part of his creative work – in other words, they are not simply sketches serving as drafts for future finished works, but independent and complete works of art in themselves that showcase the artist’s dexterity in depicting on paper his unmediated inspiration, drawn from his experiences, feelings, dreams, and thoughts.

Roubina Sarelakou, also a multifaceted artist, awarded by the Academy of Athens for her engraving work, presents a series of forty woodcuts she created in the 1970s and 1980s. Drawing original inspiration from her personal experiences in Paris, she depicts with realistic precision everyday objects, old buildings, fruits, machinery etc. with realistic accuracy, capturing an inner dialogue with inanimate objects that gives them substance, a dream and a voice. The exhibition also includes a very recent work of hers – an applied art installation consisting of two chairs and a table, on the surfaces of which she incorporates works of engraving – as well as the original blocks used in four of her engravings that will help the public gain a deeper understanding of the art of woodcut.

The exhibition is curated by art historian George Mylonas, who offers us a penetrating look into the work of the two artists in his text contained in the bilingual catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

The exhibition will be complemented by educational workshops for the public and talks by the two artists themselves.

EXHIBITION PERIOD: from 24/09/2022 until 16/1/2023

OPENING HOURS: 10.00 - 16.00 daily (closed on Tuesdays)

All Gallery areas have been rendered fully accessible to people with mobility difficulties thanks to a donation from the Stavros NIARCHOS Foundation (SNF).

Sponsors: Baron Michael Tossizza Foundation ● Katogi Averoff S.A.

With the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports