MONTH IN REVIEW: October 2025
A roundup of this past month’s art and design news about the makers and creators from Greece and Cyprus
By: Sophia Marilyn Nelson
Velychko Gallery in Cyprus unveiled “Precarious Celebrations”
Velychko Gallery’s opened its annual exhibit in Paphos entitled Precarious Celebrations. Curated by Oleksandra Pogrebnyak, the show brought together artists from Velychko’s CARV_25 artist residency including Ksenia Bilyk, Olga Stein, Olha Marusyn, and Tamara Turliun. During their residency in Cyprus, the artists created new pieces that oscillated between festivity and fragility, memory and forgetfulness. Pogrebnyak described the culminating exhibition as “not only a reflection of the artists’ personal journeys but also a dialogue with Cyprus as a place of intersections, transitions, and hidden tensions.”
Precarious Celebrations attracted over 300 attendees from across the region. Ukrainian art collectors and patrons Serge Polivar and Adam Harber provided support for the exhibition.
Dimitris Papaioannou Presented a New Work in Honor of the Museum of Cycladic Art’s 40th Anniversary
The Cycladic Museum of Art celebrated the start of its 40th anniversary and chapter of “Transformation” with a special commission for choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou. Entitled This That Keeps On, Papaioannou adapted numerous works in his repertoire to create a completely new experience. Thirty dancers and actors animated the environment and sparked dialogues between history, modernity, architecture, and movement on stage.
With this performance, the museum deepened its engagement with Athens’ cultural scene and marked the trajectory of its “Transformation,” an initiative that redefines how the museum will operate in the future inside and outside of the institution. In a shared commitment to education and accessibility, the museum and Papaioannou donated 2,000 of these performance tickets to students of the arts, giving them the opportunity to experience the evening up close and be party of the larger community.
Sculptor Marina Xenofontos Will Represent Cyprus at the 2026 Venice Biennale
The advistory committee for the Cyprus pavilion selected Marina Xenofontos — out of 21 other proposals — to represent the country at the 2026 Venice Biennale with her work It Rests in the Bones.
In a “Selection Rationale” statement, the advisory committee said, “The committee found the fully-fledged proposal as not only engaging with pertinent issues of the difficult times we live in, but also bringing to the surface Cypriot micro-histories within a global context. The installation of sculptures, video and sound delves into issues of personal and cultural memory with special emphasis on the power of folk traditions and heritage, to challenge established social norms, structures and conventions.”
Born in Limassol in 1988, Xenofontos uses found objects, kinetic sculptures, and film to weave together collective narratives. She calls her work the “unconditional archive,” a layered collection of ideas, political memory, objects, and social norms that our present-day life rests upon.
For this edition, the Cyprus Pavilion will be at the Associazione Culturale Spiazzi, near the Arsenale. Kyle Dancewicz, the Deputy Director of SculptureCenter in New York, is the curator.
Construction Began on Paphos’ Two New Museum Projects
Construction began on The Georgios Kr. Tornaritis Natural History and Art Museum and Multi-Thematic Museum, both located in the center of Paphos. Housed in the former Matthew Charalambides warehouses, the facilities revitalize the city through art and history while also highlighting the importance of architectural restoration. Rather than demolishing the warehouses, the team — led by Architect Andreas Vardas — encouraged a restoration that would preserve the historic structures.
New student hostels and four small hotels are also included in the construction planning in the town center as well as an overhaul of the Paphos shopping center. These developments showcase the city’s commitment to innovation, preservation, community building, and education.
A New Art Showcase Inside the Athens Airport Opened
All Aboard is a new exhibition at the Athens International Airport that opened in the Express Facility building. The show currently features 40 artists from around the globe and is curated by Kostas Prapoglos. It poses questions of movement, transition, and liminal space as lived experiences. Contemporary installations, sculptures, videos, and paintings engage with the architecture, space, and rhythms of transit, and the exhibition communicates how infrastructure can be a site for cultural exchange, observation, and meaningful connection. It challenges passengers to view themselves as contributors to the ever-changing landscape around them.
National Archaeological Museum Entered a New Phase of Expansion
Greece’s Museum Council approved plans to expand the National Archaeological Museum (NAM) — and neighboring Epigraphic Museum.
The vision for the new structures — designed by David Chipperfield — will reshape the visitor experience at one of the word’s greatest cultural institutions and connect it more closely with the city that surrounds it.
The new building in NAM’s front garden and will house visitor services, ticket halls, a restaurant and café, bookstore, auditorium, and designated educational spaces. The museum's permanent exhibits will live at the lower level, topped with a garden on the roof.
This new expansion places an emphasis on narrative-driven curation, deepening the visitor experience, and providing engaging, storied context around the breadth of artifacts on display. There will be a blend of traditional and digital tools to create an immersive, multi-sensory experience that enhances accessibility and engagement.
Renovations at the adjacent Epigraphic Museum are designed under the thematic framework: “History and Greek Language Through Stones.” The re-imagined galleries will highlight the role that writing plays in shaping human civilization.
