We are but soil that learned to stand upright, for a little while.
So begins the announcement for ΧΩΜΑ — Chóma, "Soil" — the exhibition that opened at the Municipal Gallery of Aegina at the end of June and runs until 23 August.
Seventy-five artists are in it. They come from northern Greece and from Crete, from the Ionian islands, from Sifnos and Serifos and the rest of the Cyclades, from the Peloponnese, Thessaly and Epirus, from Macedonia and Thrace, from the north Aegean and the Dodecanese — and from Aegina and Athens. Contemporary work in clay hangs alongside a small group of older ceramics, some by named makers, some anonymous, together with a handful of paintings in which soil is either the subject or, quite literally, the material.
It is conceived and curated by Iris Kritikou, and it is a sequel: two years ago, almost to the day, the same gallery showed her Melana. Where that exhibition dealt in blackness, this one takes the ground itself.
The official opening reception was Saturday, 11 July, at 19:00. But the show has been open to the public since 30 June, and you do not have to wait.
What the curator says
Kritikou describes an exhibition designed as a many-sided place — referential, experimental, aesthetic — prompted by the wish to continue a dialogue with matter and its transformations begun in Melana.
What binds the works, she writes, is an inventive poetics that runs through them like a current. And with it: the ruling monochrome of the clay's flesh; the near-total absence of intense colour; the emphasis on the process by which form comes into being. The earthen substance, with the fine tonalities of its own generative pigment, its varied textures and imperceptible fluctuations, its successive episodes of rebirth and transformation. This arresting nakedness of natural matter — the small absences and presences of foreign bodies within it, the way it changes under different firings and temperatures, or the disarming possibility of leaving the body of it raw.
And behind all of it, she writes, the all-but-present intimation of the chthonic condition: the inescapable cycle of life, a state of passage, the invisible metaphysical suspension of the everlasting.
The works, she argues, confirm what ceramics can be — a major art, with deep historical roots and inexhaustible capacity to move.
Why this matters here
The Municipal Gallery opened in September 2023, in the former OTE telephone exchange on Palaias Choras street — a single-storey space, plainly and functionally renovated, a short walk from the Markellos Tower. It was founded with the aim of slowly building a permanent collection worthy of this island's considerable artistic history, and of hosting exhibitions in between. Entry has always been free.
Chóma is organised by the Municipality of Aegina, under the auspices of the Aegina Fistiki Fest.
A programme of talks, guided tours and children's workshops will run alongside the exhibition. Dates have not yet been announced. [AN: we'll publish them here as they are.]
If you go
ΧΩΜΑ / Chóma Ceramic Art Exhibition
Municipal Gallery of Aegina
6 Palaias Choras Street, Aegina town — the old OTE building, near the Markellos Tower.
Runs: 30 June – 23 August 2026
Open: Thursday to Monday, 10:30–13:30 and 19:00–21:00
Note the split hours
Closed: Tuesday and Wednesday
Opening reception: Saturday 11 July, 19:00
Admission: free
Curator: Iris Kritikou
Coordination: Nikos Pteroudis, Marilena Giannouli, Iris Kritikou
Graphic design: Fotini Katsa
Transport and installation: Nikos Papagiannis
Reception and education programmes: Maria Lioli
The Artists
Vassilis Anastasopoulos · Antonis Atsonios · Anna Achilleos · Giorgos Vavatsis · Mika Voyatzi · Giorgos Georgiadis · Leoni Giagdzoglou · Katerina Giannaka · Nikos Ghikas · Irini Gonou · Iasonas Damianos · Mirka Drapaniotou · Margarita Ekklisiarchou · Stratos Zarglis · Vassilis Zografos · Giannis Zois · Andreas Theodorou · Maro Theodorou · Zozo Theodorou · Karmela Iatropoulou · Maggy Ioannou · Natassa Kalogeropoulou · Tina Karageorgi · Kostas Karakitsos · Nikos Karalis · Maro Kerasioti · Marina Coriolano-Lykourezou · Chara Koropouli · Iosifina Kosma · Elpida Kourtzi · Efi Koutava · Maria Linardaki · Chrysanthi Lymberaiou · Varvara Mavrakaki · Kyriaki Mavrogeorgi · Marilena Michopoulou · Christina Morali · Dora Morfi · Manos Batzolis · Chariton Bekiaris · Thomas Bertolis · Panagiotis Brentas · Kostas Nikakis · Vassilis Nikolaou · Melina Xenaki · Dionysia Papadaki · Christos Papadakis · Menandros Papadopoulos · Myrto Papadopoulou · Liana Papalexi · Maria Papanikolaou · Dionysis Pappas · Maria Petratou · Angelina Pini · Angeliki Politi · Giorgos Pontikis · Fivos-Lambros Poultsiakis · Marilena Roussou · Vera Siaterli · Panagiotis Sklavainas · Nikos Sklavenitis · Angelos Skourtis · Anthi Soultani · Hans Stäubli · Dimitra Stavrou · Praxitelis Tzanoulinos · Vaso Trigka · Katerina Tsimichodimou · Theodora Tsirakoglou · Efi Tolia (mojo ceramics) · Ifigeneia Tsirou · Stamatis Filippaios · Mairi Hatzinikoli Sarafianou · Ilias Christopoulos · Theodora Chorafa
Source: press release, Municipal Gallery of Aegina. Translation and reporting by Aegina News.