The Benaki Museum Shop and NOMAS Publications have joined forces to present, at 3, Kriezotou St. four selected prints by Dimitris Papaioannou from the limited-edition Sketches from life. The works are exclusively available to the public for the first time at the Ghika Gallery Shop.

The edition Sketches from life is the result of an initiative by NOMAS publishers, Yannis Bournias and Lina Stefanou, with artistic direction by the artist himself.

A curated series of drawings from Dimitris Papaioannou’s personal Cycladic sanctuary, Anafi—nude figures and landscapes captured in pencil on the sketchpads he takes to the beach—will be presented as poetic testaments to the purity of the Greek landscape. “My best work comes out of play”, he reflects, speaking of the 200 drawings included in the publication—some in color—created during the summers of 2021, 2022, and 2023 on Anafi, the island that rekindled his connection with painting.

The edition invites us to explore the artist’s reconnection with painting and drawing, a practice inherent in all of his stage creations from the moment of their conception. “Drawing from life—we called it Night Nude at the Athens School of Fine Arts—was my favourite exercise when I was nineteen-year-old student. Every afternoon, a nude body would stand in the middle of an amphitheatre filled with clothed ones. On the beach, we are all nude... Even though most of the sketches have to be done quickly—or even rapidly, depending on the restlessness of the unsuspecting model—they are in the end a testimony to slow time in the Cycladic setting. It is there and then that the beauty of all manifests itself…”. “The story of human art is a timeless quest to understand who we are and where we stand in the world. We measure things by our own personal standards. Portraying the world becomes valuable as a means of self-awareness. That is why capturing the human figure—ourselves—has remained a constant and enduring practice in painting, from the very beginning until today”.

Discover the collection here.

 

Ghika Gallery Shop, 3 Kriezotou St., Athens

Duration: 05.06.2025 - 06.07.2025