Boundless House

Boundless House, 2024 025 

Wood , acrylic

107 x 94 x 11 cm 

 "House Party" 

#ninettogallery

 

House Party

Founded by @romainbitton and @fweders, Ninetto is dedicated to presenting both international and Greece-based artists, often for the first time locally. Housed in a 1920s neoclassical building with a rich past, it balances the intimacy of a domestic space with the clarity of a white cube. Functioning as both a gallery and artist residency, Ninetto draws on the spirit of the salon to foster dialogue, collaboration, and critical exchange.

With House Party, Ninetto invites @hugoavigo, @alexanderleepage, @kostisvelonis, @marco.villard, and @fayeweiwei to explore themes of domesticity through painting, installation, and object-making. The exhibition is not merely a celebration of a new space—it is an act of construction, a collective ritual through which a new “house” is built.

 

The Gravity of the Sun

Divergence of the Sun (Solar Politics in Labour Practice), 2023-24 

Wood, metal, acrylic, oil 

130 x 110 x 29 cm

«Whispers and microhistories between the bastions»

Φρούριο του Νιόκαστρου, Ναβαρίνο

Curated by : Stella Christofi

with:
Stella Christofi, Maria Glyka, Antonis Kanellos, Konstantinos Lianos, Valia Papachristou, Hara Piperidou, Marios Stamatis, Kostis Stafylakis, The Callas, Dimitris Trikas, Marina Velisioti, Kostis Velonis, Evgenia Vereli, Vasilis Vlastaras, Poka Yio 

20/7-28/7/2024

#kostisvelonis #sun #φρούριο #fortress #Pylos #ΝιόκαστροΝαυαρίνου# #NewCastleofPylos#politics#labour #sculpture #puppetry#solarpolitics

Dry Dreams on the Sea Floor

 

     

Dry Dreams on the Sea Floor, 2024 

Plastic, polysterene, polypropylene, rope, iron, fabric, acrylic, oil

@perasmaistanbul

“All Things Become Islands Before My Senses” 

#kostisvelonis #sea #seafloor #dry #dreams #precarious #dwelling 

Damfino (Chorus of the Breezes)

Damfino (Chorus of the Breezes), 2024 

Wood, marine plywood, rusty iron, acrylic, oil 

“Things Become Islands Before My Senses” presented by @perasmaistanbul

#kostisvelonis #sculpture #vagabondobjects #breezes #slapstick #damnifiknow #environmentalslapstick

Salty Mountain

Salty Mountain, 2024

Plywood, wood, acrylic 

"Things Become Islands Before My Senses”

 presented by @perasmaistanbul

#floating #salty #mountain #vagabondobjects #sculpture #kostisvelonis #environmentalsculpture

The World Turned Upside Down Buster Keaton, Sculpture and the Absurd

Still from One Week, 1920. Courtesy Park Circus

In 1920, Buster Keaton released his first solo film, One Week, at around the same time as Duchamp was working on The Large Glass (The Bride Stripped Bare by her Batchelors, Even). One Week uses beautifully executed visual jokes to tell the story of a man’s doomed attempts to build a flat-pack house—the utopian modernist readymade—for his bride. Keaton not only performed his own stunts; he also designed the mechanics by which the scenes were created, along the way inventing shots and editing sequences that have now become the accepted syntax of cinema. Viewed shot by shot, these scenes undermine certainties about the world we inhabit and represent the inevitability of failure when we try to exert control.

Curated by Simon Faithfull and Ben Roberts, The World Turned Upside Down, places the work of over twenty international artists working in film, sculpture, installation art and performance in direct relation to Buster Keaton’s films to track a lineage from the melancholic and at times anarchic comedy of Keaton to the dry wit of conceptual practice. By examining Keaton’s approach to art through making—the processes of repetition, failure and risk—the exhibition also establishes a nuanced presentation of the developmental relationship between slapstick film, sculpture and performance and highlights parallels within modern and contemporary sculptural practice which continue to resonate today.

The exhibition features work of conceptual artists working in film, photography, sculpture, installation art and performance; by historical and contemporary, established and emerging artists. These include Bas Jan Ader, Marcel Broodthaers, Alexandre da Cunha, Simon Faithfull, Fischli  Weiss, Brian Griffiths, Emma Hart, Jeppe Hein, Sofia Hultén, Tehching Hsieh, Gordon Matta-Clark, Hayley Newman, Miranda Pennell, Ruth Proctor, Roman Signer, William Wegman, Richard Wentworth, Richard Wilson, John Wood and Paul Harrison, Ben Woodeson and Erwin Wurm. The associated events programme features performances by Angus Braithwaite, Andy Holden, Jefford Horrigan, Ruth Proctor and William Hunt.

The World Turned Upside Down places the work of these artists in direct relation to three of Keaton’s early films: The Boat, The Cameraman and One Week, which will be continuously played throughout the exhibition. Through the plotting of these connections, the exhibition establishes a nuanced presentation of slapstick and the developmental relationship between sculpture and performance.

The World Turned Upside Down is a Mead Gallery exhibition which has been supported by The Henry Moore Foundation.

Warwick Arts Centre
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

www.meadgallery.co.uk

Alongside the exhibition there are a number of events running throughout the season. Events include:

Exhibition tours
Join Fiona Venables, Assistant Curator, for a 30-minute introduction to The World Turned Upside Down. The exhibition tours are free but places are limited so please book ahead by calling the Box Office.

Fail Better – Deconstructing Buster Keaton
Warwick Arts Centre hosts a packed two days of artists’ performances, film screenings and talks to coincide with The World Turned Upside Down. Contributors include Angus Braithwaite, Simon Faithfull, Andy Holden, Jefford Horrigan, William Hunt and Ruth Proctor.

The Clumsy Boat

"The Boat" is a classic silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton, released in 1921. The film follows Keaton's character and his family's escapades aboard a small homemade boat. Drawing inspiration from themes and motifs in Keaton's silent short film, Kostis Velonis' "Fragile Ship Adrift" series informs his work across sculpture, installations, drawings, and ephemeral events, serving as a metaphor for the human condition. It explores individuals' navigation of life's unpredictable seas, often feeling vulnerable and adrift. The juxtaposition of the ship's precarious situation with moments of humor and slapstick underscores the irony and absurdity inherent in human existence. In "The Boat," Keaton navigates a series of comedic mishaps and perilous situations aboard a small vessel, highlighting the fragility of human endeavor against nature's vast and unpredictable forces. Similarly, the "Fragile Ship Adrift" series delves into themes of resilience, determination, and the absurdity of human striving in the face of adversity. The second body of works, "Fair Winds and Following Seas," features a 2024 sculpture crafted from marine plywood. This piece embodies the essence of the nautical phrase 'Fair Winds and Following Seas, which originates from two distinct sources and is universally embraced as a maritime blessing, wishing travelers a safe and fortunate voyage. 'Fair winds' symbolize the blessing of favorable breezes guiding one's journey homeward, while 'following seas' signifies the supportive currents propelling one toward their intended destination. This sculpture encapsulates the optimism and hope inherent in these phrases, celebrating the guidance and support we seek in our life's journeys.

callirrhoe_BLOOM 

Courtesy the artist and Kalfayan Gallery Collaboration with Callirrhoë Commissioned by OCEANIC PRO #KostisVelonis #BLOOM #callirrhoeathens

Sea Masonry III

 

Sea Masonry III, 2024
Wood

@callirhoe

 Bloom

 

Low Suns

Rubber Ray, 2024

420 x 0,19 x 2 m 

Polyethylene, soil, plastic 

Marble, Labour and the Sun, 2024 

0,22 x 0,23 x 019 cm 

Marble, nylon wire

Low Sun, 2024

1,4 x 0,60 x 18 cm

Polyethylene, metal

Everything Ι touch turns into me

Archaeology of Gesture

Group Show @space.52

Curated by Evagoria Dapola

@scale_appropriate 

Nikos Alexiou. The Collection

In the still sleeping town the force that drives the trees is the midnight noise that empty rooms may make, 2005 

Wood, veneer, acrylic, felt, clay, canvas, seeds 

Variable Dimensions

In 2010, a few months before he passed away, Nikos Alexiou (1960-2011) donated to the Benaki Museum his rich contemporary art collection that he created with great dedication and patience, along with his artistic work. It is a unique set of artworks by contemporary Greek and foreign artists, which reveals a special aspect of Alexiou’s the multifaceted activity, that redefined the artistic practices in Greece in the late 20th and early 21st century, with a long-lasting impact.

The exhibition presents this donation, introducing it as part of the artist's own practice but also as an example of an artist-collector capable of contributing not only to the reflection on the artistic production of twenty years (1990-2010) but also to the creation of existential worlds and unexpected constellations of meaning.

The corpus of these 236 works by eighty-four artists can also be understood as an "open work" that Alexiou constantly rearranged in his places of residence, multiplying synapses and narratives.

This ensemble is governed by certain recognizable characteristics: a preference for the minor event or gesture, craftsmanship and fleeting personal traces, an obsession with paper, transparency and lightness, an interest in the relationship of line to space, webs and grids, a delicate balance between disorder and order and, above all, a prominent attitude of artistic solidarity. All those things that we could call a passion for creating and interweaving worlds (referring to the Greek dia-kosmos, meaning ornament but also – literally- inter-world).

The multi-layered and at the same time imperfect character of the Collection makes it a functional unity and proposes a tactile and physical experience emerging from a special in situ installation in collaboration with the architectural office AREA. Curated by: Polina Kosmadaki, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

Artists:

AIDS-3D (Daniel Keller, Nik Kosmas), Alexis Akrithakis, Andreas Angelidakis, Andisheh Avini, Vassilis Balatsos, Carmen García Bartolomé, Dikos Byzantios, Gustav Ceder, Bernhard Cella, Yannoulis Chalepas, Panos Charalambous, Manolis Charos, Adam Chodzko, Kostas Christopoulos, Daniel, Stephen Dean, Katerina Diakomi, Dimitris Foutris, Pavlos (Dionyssopoulos), Werner Moser Dorfmann, Jimmie Durham, Jack Early, Dora Economou, Kostis Velonis, Naya Frangouli, Vasso Gavaise, Alexandros Georgiou, Voula Gounela, Elias Kafouros, Eleni Kamma, Irene Karagiannopoulou, Apostolos Karakatsanis, Apostolos Karastergiou, Polydoros Karyofyllis (Poka-Yio), Stathis Katsarelis, Anne Kern, Panos Kokkinias, Haris Kontosfyris, Daphne Kostopoulou, Kostas Koulentianos, Antonis Kyriakoulis, George Lappas, Spyros Litinas, Pieretta Lorentzatou,Jason Meadows, Deanna Maganias, Jörg Mandernach, Caitlin Masley, Voula Masoura, George Mavroidis, Michael Michaelides, Christos Mitas, Christina Mitrentse, Amy O'Neill, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Maria Papadimitriou, Leonidas Papadopoulos, Dimitris Papaioannou, Aemilia Papaphilippou, Nina Pappa, Enoc Perez, Simon Periton, Elena Poka, Marie Françoise Poutays, Mantalina Psoma, Mary Redmond, Rémy Rivoire, Vicente Rojo, Georgia Sagri, Yorgos Sapountzis, Kai Schiemenz, Minas Semerdjian, Jim Shaw, Irys Schenker, Alex Slade, Danae Stratou, Stephen Sutcliffe, Philip Tarlow, Yuken Teruya, Gert & Uwe Tobias, Nikos Triantaphyllou, Alexandros Tsadilas, Nanos Valaoritis, Ino Varvariti, Kostis Velonis, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlahos, Pae White, Manolis Zacharioudakis.

Warm thanks to Popi Alexiou and the Association ‘Megalos Kipos: Nikos Alexiou Archive’ for their support, the access to archival materials and the loan of the unique Filing Cabinet of the artist.