ArtVolt

Back in Athens? As the city starts to come back to life after a long hot summer, there’s still plenty of time to catch Gen X: Tales from the Forgotten Generation at the DESTE Foundation!

📍 DESTE Foundation, Athens
📅 On view until 26 November 2026
🕐 Tuesday–Thursday, 12:00–20:00

Drawn from the Dakis Joannou Collection, the exhibition looks at a generation of artists born between 1960 and 1980—the often-overlooked cohort caught between the cultural dominance of the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Coming of age amid the prosperity of the 1980s and the recessions that followed, these artists responded with irony, irreverence and a willingness to dismantle convention. Across the exhibition, lowbrow aesthetics, fashion, media, identity, sexuality and the emerging digital world collide, capturing a generation negotiating rapid cultural and technological change and the beginnings of an increasingly globalised future.

Curated by Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director of the New Museum, with Calvin Wang and Taeyi Kim.

Opening to the public tomorrow in Venice: 500+ artisans, 700+ extraordinary objects and more than 70 countries come together for the fourth edition of Homo Faber.
But Homo Faber is about far more than beautiful objects. The biennial takes its name from the idea of the “human maker” — our uniquely human ability to transform materials, ideas and the world around us through skill and creativity. Dedicated to championing contemporary craftsmanship and the people behind it, this year’s edition, An Island of Light, places the artisan’s hands, tools, materials and knowledge firmly at the centre of the experience.
For 2026, acclaimed British artist and designer Es Devlin transforms the historic Fondazione Giorgio Cini on San Giorgio Maggiore into a journey through 15 immersive installations, using light, water, mirrors, movement and sound to reveal craftsmanship in entirely different ways. Visitors move from an imagined artisan’s studio and portraits of the participating makers to projected silhouettes of handcrafted objects, moon jars reflected across water, illuminated paper birds, mirrored cloisters and rooms devoted entirely to white, light and extraordinary colour.
The setting is integral to the experience. Inspired by the islands of the Venetian lagoon, Devlin imagines each artisan as an individual island of talent within a much larger archipelago of craftsmanship, allowing the architecture, gardens and changing Venetian light of San Giorgio Maggiore to become part of the exhibition itself.
And the making doesn’t stop behind the displays: live artisan demonstrations, hands-on workshops, tours and culinary experiences run throughout the month, while Homo Faber in Città extends the celebration into workshops and cultural spaces across Venice.
If you’re heading to Venice this September, Homo Faber 2026 is one to put firmly on the list!

Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light
📍 Fondazione Giorgio Cini, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
📅 1–30 September 2026
Artistic direction by Es Devlin | Curated by the Michelangelo Foundation

Opening tomorrow in Patmos 👀

Jewellery Was Never Innocent – Group Show
📍 Patmion Cultural Center, Skala, Patmos
📅 Opening: Tues. 18 Aug., 18.00–22.00
🗓 On view: 18–23 Aug.
🕐 Opening hours: 10.00–13.00 & 18.00–21.00

Presented by The Great Design Disaster and Joy Herro, Jewellery Was Never Innocent explores jewellery as an extension of the body, a sculptural device, and a space where personal, social, and cultural meanings intersect. Bringing together artists, designers, architects, photographers, filmmakers, and other creatives, the exhibition considers jewellery beyond ornament, exploring identity, perception, presence, absence, and transformation.

Designers include Andrea Mancuso, Casa Milana, Cécile Feilchenfeldt + Maddalena Casadei, Christine Kalia, David/Nicolas, Dia Mrad, Flavie Audi, Harry Rigalo, Jacopo Foggini, Marcin Rusak, Najla El Zein, Oh Hyunseog, Philippe Malouin, Shaha Raphael, Sophie Dries, Superloop, and Tino Seubert.

Artists include Alex Tzanis, Camille Rousseau + Lora Ujkaj, Cosima Bucarelli, Dimitra Dimopoulou, Farida El Gazzar, Giovanni De Francesco, Ieva Saudargaitė Douaihi, Jaime Poblete, Lien Hoang-Xuan, Margarita Myrogianni, Mary Weatherford, Sofia Stevi, Thomas Devaux, Venus Avery, and Zoe Paul.

Also participating are Alessandra Ienca, Deniz Galip, Gregory Gatserelia, Tommaso Fantoni, Asli Turker, Bianca Cedrone, Vasiliki, Marlon Rueberg, Nohad Bouez, OLDER Studio, Oslo Made in Heaven, Studio Vedèt + Linalou, and Lessico Familiare.

Following Patmos, the exhibition travels to TGDD Space in Milan in September, followed by the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens in November during Art Athina.

Still in Athens? If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss Jeff Koons: ‘Venus’ Lespugue before it closes at the end of the month.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey spanning more than 40,000 years of representations of the human body. It begins in a dark, cave-like space containing ten certified replicas of Paleolithic “Venus” figurines from major European collections, before opening into a bright room dominated by Koons’ monumental Balloon Venus Lespugue (Orange) (2013–2019), presented publicly for the first time.

Koons first became fascinated by the 28,000-year-old Venus of Lespugue in the late 1970s, drawn to its exaggerated curves and surprisingly modern form. In his interpretation, mammoth ivory becomes mirror-polished stainless steel and the ancient figure is transformed into something monumental, playful, and intensely reflective. As you move around it, you see the room, the people beside you, and your own image reflected back.

Through this contrast between ancient and contemporary materials, darkness and light, the exhibition explores beauty, fertility, technology, memory, and the ways the human form continues to connect us across thousands of years.

📍 Museum of Cycladic Art, Neofitou Douka 4
📅 On view until 31 August 2026

📸s courtesy of Paris Tavitian & Museum of Cycladic Art

Opening tomorrow in Mykonos!

Antikatoptrismoí: Reflections – Group Show
📍 Rancho Kaya, Mykonos
📅 Opening: Thurs. 6 Aug, 18.00

Co-curated by Theadora Karos and Camila Bernaldez, Antikatoptrismoí: Reflections brings together artists from Los Angeles, New York, Athens, London, and Sweden to explore reflection through light, shadow, pattern, repetition, and material. Featuring works by Nicolette Mishkan, Archer Defterios, Joe Reihsen, Avery Wheless, Alexandra Dore, G. Milanesi, Marina Kappos, Mia Golds, Ava McDonough, Cal Pav, Maria Sigma, Nona Jato, Shahla K. Friberg, Finn Kazmack, and Dimitris Gketsis.

RSVP: DM or [email protected]

Opening this week in Santorini:

Birds of Passage – Group Show
📍 Hiraeth Santorini, Megalochori, Santorini
📅 Opening: Thurs. 6 Aug., 18.00
Presented by CYPHER, Birds of Passage transforms a residential complex into a temporary exhibition space, bringing together paintings by Ioannis Aristotelous, Dimosthenis Barbas (Barba Dee), Elena-Dimitra Chantzis, Dimitris Efeoglou, Panagiotis Kefalas, Owen Osunde, Yorgos Papafigos, Katerina Papazissi, and Eleni Tomadaki. Curated by Isavella Kladaki. Opening night features a live act and DJ set by Aquatic Ensemble. On view until 20 Sept.

Opening tomorrow!
Island Hooping – Group Show
📍 Fouquet's Mykonos Hotel, Paraga, Mykonos (presented by George Benias Gallery)
📅 Opening: Sat. 1 Aug., 20.00–22.00

Presented by George Benias Gallery at Fouquet's Mykonos Hotel, Island Hooping brings together works by Julien Boudet, Alex Chien, Loïc Devaux, Filippos Telesto, and Tyrrell Winston. If you're on the island, don't miss it!

On view from tomorrow in Antiparos: Melting Beauty.

Featuring works by Agustín Cárdenas, Nigel Cooke, Alekos Fassianos, Sally Gabori, Leiko Ikemura, Martha Jungwirth, Sean Scully, Yinka Shonibare, Amy Sillman, Joan Snyder, Kennedy Yanko, and more, Melting Beauty explores the evolving idea of beauty through artists spanning generations and geographies. Curated by Craig Burnett.

📩 Open by appointment: [email protected] | +30 695 592 3656

📍 L'Appartement - Antiparos
📅 30 July – 31 August

If you’re heading to the south of France this summer, don’t miss RELATUM: Lee Ufan at the Palais des Papes. Set within the Palace of the Popes, the vast 14th-century residence of the papacy and one of Europe’s most significant Gothic monuments, the exhibition presents major paintings alongside site-specific installations that respond to the remarkable architecture and history of the space.

📍 Palais des Papes, Avignon
📅 On view through 15 November

Opening tonight in Athens!

On the Wave – Group Show
📍 Andie Art Gallery, 17 Farandaton St.
📅 Opening: Tues. 14 July, 19.00
Bringing together painting, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery, and mixed media, On the Wave celebrates the sea as a symbol of memory, movement, and the Greek summer through the work of more than 30 artists. Curated by art historian Annita Patsouraki.