Opening: Thursday, 1 October 2026, 19:00
[…] In the dream where I was walking, everything looked like unanswered questions at bus stops. When I wake up, I won’t remember any of it. And yet, for many years, the truth was pounding in my heart. I just wanted to sleep, because it suited me. Perhaps that’s why the best poems don’t simply leave us with unanswered questions. They change the way we ask the questions. And that is already a form of knowledge, even if it isn’t the ultimate truth.
K.BHTA, July 2026
No Corner, Summer Dead End, Until You Return, The Blue Tree: these are some of the titles of the paintings that K. BHTA is presenting to the public for the first time at MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art, in the Case Studio space, as part of the exhibition “Only the Coastline Remains”, from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. The exhibition also serves as the opening event of the programme for the 61st Dimitria Festival organised by the Municipality of Thessaloniki.
And whilst these titles may be read as titles of artworks, they also sound like lyrics. The title of the exhibition itself is a lyric. Their “melodies” are conveyed in the paintings through the colours, frames, forms and elements that make up the works.
Known to the public primarily as a musician and lyricist, K. BHTA has, from time to time, also pursued a parallel career in the visual arts. His connection with the visual arts began during his education, with studies in painting and art history in Melbourne, where he was born, and continues through his personal study and systematic artistic practice.
Some twenty years after his first solo exhibition in 2005 at the Center of Contemporary Art — now MOMUS Experimental Arts Centre — K. BHTA returns to the city with a series of painterly, dreamlike images. The works in the exhibition date from 2019 to the present day and reveal a different, yet deeply related, aspect of his artistic practice.
Drawing on Symbolism and the naïve painters of the 20th century, K. BHTA creates a vividly coloured and personal universe. Within this, human solitude coexists with poetry and melancholy, yet also with a subtle, hidden optimism: the hope that people, even within an imaginary landscape, will one day come together.
The mountains, trees, waters and sky depicted in the works do not refer to any specific geographical location. They are distorted, simplified and transformed in order to convey emotions such as isolation, anxiety, serenity, nostalgia or the fear of death.
Solitary figures or groups of people — friends, lovers, siblings — are moving or standing still, observing and gazing. They are frozen in a still, timeless moment. The colours — pink, green, blue, purple, ochres, amongst others — appear in their most vivid yet most delicate forms. They do not conform to the realism of an actual landscape, but are freely chosen according to their emotional and thematic function. Thus, the place we see remains open-ended: we do not know whether it is real, imaginary, dreamlike or nightmarish.
As viewers, we are called upon to make our own connections and to situate the images where they resonate with our own inner world. Perhaps this is also one of the most essential elements of contemporary visual art and, in particular, of K. BHTA’s work: the artist’s need to engage with the dreams, aspirations and disappointments of the person standing before a painting.
Artistic Direction: Thouli Misirloglou, Artistic Director of MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art
Curated by: Theodore Markoglou, Art Historian, Curator at MOMUS
Production: Municipality of Thessaloniki and MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the 61st Dimitria Festival.
Biographical note
K.BHTA was born in Melbourne, Australia, and grew up in Athens, where he lives and works. He began his musical studies at the Palladio Conservatoire in Athens and studied Painting and Art History at the Prahran Institute in Melbourne. In 1992, he founded the electronic band Stereo Nova, whilst since 1996 he has been pursuing his own career as a musician, producer and composer. He has released more than 25 music albums and has composed music for films, documentaries, dance and theatre. At the same time, he continues to paint and create visual art.
He has collaborated with contemporary artists from a wide range of artistic fields and has presented musical compositions and projects at cultural institutions, including the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera, the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi, the Athens Festival, the Athens Concert Hall, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. He also took part in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
In 2005, he presented his first solo art exhibition at the Center of Contemporary Art, part of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, entitled “Soundscapes”, curated by Vasilis Amanatidis and Thouli Misirloglou. In 2025, the PCAI (Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative) presented its visual arts project “Space and Memory” at the Pikionis Pavilion in Delphi, curated by Kika Kyriakakou, as part of the Ministry of Culture’s programme “All of Greece, One Culture”.
61a Dimitra / Opening Party – DJ Sets
Thursday, 1 October 2026
MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art (within TIF-HELEXPO, Thessaloniki)
21:00–22:00 K.BHTA
22:00–23:00 Iakovos “Rudeboy” Komninos
To mark the opening of the art exhibition “Only the Coastline Remains” at MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art and the start of the 61st Dimitria Festival, K.BHTA takes to the decks with his long-standing collaborator and concert keyboardist, Vaios Mahmoudes, for a special DJ set. DJ Iakovos “Rudeboy” Komninos keeps the night going with energy, joy, intensity and rhythm from the very first beat.
Produced by: Thessaloniki City Council and MOMUS – Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the 61st Dimitria Festival.
