Subject and Matter. This week’s exhibition recommendations in Athens, 10-17.11

Published on: 09/11/2025

When dealing with the history of art, there is a tendency to distinguish between formal analysis — the medium, material, color, size, etc. — and the subject matter that the artist engages with and seeks to explore. In the modern and contemporary periods, artists push the boundaries of both form and subject. In our view, even when these boundaries are stretched to the maximum, there ultimately needs to be a relationship between content and form; they should serve and enhance one another.

The recommended exhibitions for the coming week all deal with the tension or possible alignment between subject and form. At the Benaki Museum, the legendary photographer Roger Ballen presents images that are paintings — or perhaps paintings that are photographs? At Kalfayan Gallery, four artists work from technical starting points that guide their drawings; and at T.A.F.’s small gallery, a contemporary ceramics exhibition explores the limitations of the medium.

Wishing you a wonderful week,
filled with powerful, inspiring art.
Shani Werner & the ATHENS ART TOURS Team

Roger Ballen — Shadows of the Mind
Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, Athens
06.11.2025 – 25.01.2026
Roger Ballen is a South African artist with international acclaim, whose works have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including in the South African pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A major name, now coming to a retrospective exhibition in Athens – how exciting!
Ballen is best known for his mysterious black-and-white photographs. In these images, he repeatedly ventures into the social margins, into areas that are not “politically correct,” exploring the limited, the strange, the other. Somehow, in his photographs, even the most bizarre and dark elements acquire a halo of beauty – bringing the margins to the center.
His working method integrates painting, set design, and installation into the photographic process, with each photograph beginning in the studio through wall paintings, paper cutouts, and other design elements. On these constructed backgrounds, he places his figures and weaves a story, a dream, or perhaps a nightmare.
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4ensic Drawings
Kalfayan Galleries, Athens
11 Haritos St., Kolonaki, Athens
06.11.2025 – 10.01.2026
If you ask artists, one of the biggest challenges is deciding what to draw or which image to explore. In the 1920s, Surrealists developed “automatic drawing” to access images from deeper places in the psyche, inspiring many experimental methods to create richer imagery.
The four artists in the Kalfayan Gallery group exhibition follow a similar approach. Starting from a technical point – a line, dot, color, or grid – they use repetition and focus to guide the creation of complex images. The emphasis is on balancing control and intuition, letting the material and repeated actions shape the work.
The resulting pieces move between abstraction and recognition, precision and freedom, inviting viewers to examine details, follow lines and dots, and explore the layers within each composition. The exhibition celebrates both process and outcome, showing how repetition and formal exploration can generate compelling, surprising imagery.
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Materiality — Group Exhibition
T.A.F. / The Art Foundation, Athens
Normanou 5, Monastiraki, Athens
06.11.2025 – 23.11.2025
Curator: Antigoni Pantazi
This exhibition focuses on contemporary ceramics and how artists are pushing the boundaries of the medium. Ceramics is one of humanity’s earliest creative materials. Even in its early functional forms, it was often decorated with paintings and designs—artworks in their own right—marking the first connection between art and craft.
Today, as the boundaries between art and craft blur, ceramics has returned to the forefront of contemporary art. Contemporary ceramic artists rediscover the material, stretch its limits, and explore new ways to express ideas, forms, and textures. Clay becomes a tool for experimentation and personal vision. This exhibition highlights how these artists expand the medium’s possibilities, creating works where process, material, and imagination merge to challenge viewers and redefine art.
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