Opening 10 September at 20:00
A familiar, distinctive hum takes over the MOMUS-Museum Alex Mylona in Thissio, Athens, as words and materials, memories and dreams swirl through the space. The exhibition “eternal fan” by Myrto Xanthopoulou, an artist awarded by Art Athina, is on view in the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery from 10 September unti 25 October, 2026.
Language, serving as both a tool and a mode of expression, lies at the heart of her artistic enquiry and experimentation. This interest stems, in part, from the fact that she is herself bilingual by family background. Myrto Xanthopoulou assembles an idiosyncratic archive of words and expressions, improvised poems and fragmentary sentences that evoke imagined everyday exchanges or elliptical inner monologues. At the same time, she remains fascinated by slippages of meaning, puns and verbal play.
At the same time, Xanthopoulou systematically collects all manner of consumable and building materials, different kinds of paper (which she works on with adhesives, acrylics and spray paint) and single-use objects from her urban and domestic surroundings and from her studio. These used materials, the discarded matter of everyday life join language as the primary “materials” of her compositions, which emerge from an arduous and time-consuming manual process that always requires her direct physical involvement. The works barely stand on their own, and therein lies their strength—the need to hold their ground even amidst conditions of instability and uncertainty.
This exhibition is part of the established collaboration between the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki-MOMUS with the Hellenic Art Galleries Association and the Art Athina institution for the Young Artist Award, seeking to support and promote the work of emerging young contemporary artists.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, with the support of Art Athina.
Curated by: Yannis Bolis, Art historian, Head of Department of Contemporary Sculpture, MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona
The Art Athina 2025 Award for Young Artist
Myrto Xanthopoulou represented by Citronne Gallery is the winner of the Art Athina Young Artist Award 2025. The award was first introduced to the Art Athina program in 2022, by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association in partnership with the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki-MOMUS, aiming to strengthen artistic creation; artists up to 45 years of age, who live and work in Greece and are recommended by the gallery that represents them, where they have made at least one individual exhibition, can be nominated for the award.
After reviewing 14 nominations submitted by the galleries representing the artists, the jury deliberated and unanimously selected Myrto Xanthopoulou for the Young Artist Award 2025.
The jury praised Xanthopoulou’s practice, in their sayings, “for its consistency and cohesion, that it stands out for the breadth and multiplicity of its media – spanning installations, constructions, drawings, video and performance. With a mood that is at once reflective and either melancholic or playful, Xanthopoulou creates environments out of small gestures, in which she subverts and transforms the givens of reality”.
The Art Athina 2026 Young Artist Award will be presented on a special event during the programme of Art Athina 2026, hosted at Onassis Ready, 12-16 November 2026.
Artist’sbio
Myrto Xanthopoulou was born in Helsinki in 1981 and grew up in Athens, where she lives and works. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2004–2009). Her degree project, presented in the School’s Third Studio, was an installation in ordinary, low-cost materials that explored writing as a central element in an idiosyncratic narrative of everyday experience. Since then, her practice has remained focused on these areas, expanding into video and performance. She has held seven solo exhibitions in Athens and has taken part in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, working with galleries, museums and independent art spaces. In 2020, she received the SNF ARTWORKS Fellowship in the visual arts. 2025 saw the publication of her first artist’s book, Terma Asklipiou (End of Asklipiou Street). In the same year, she received the Art Athina Young Artist Award.
Coorganisation
ART ATHINA
YOUNG ARTIST AWARD
