Opening: Thursday 5 June 2025, 20:00
In a world where hostility is increasing towards any person who dares to question the boundaries and borders of bodies and earth, in a society where the concept of gender includes all the anxieties, neuroses and concerns of modern man, the... creatures of the artist Marianna Ignataki compose a utopia, a place of alternative communities, where we all fit in and can be free. Her solo exhibition entitled "The Enlightened Ones, the Green Horses and Some More Bitches", which will be presented at the MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki from 5 June to 14 September 2025, is the second production in the museum's Case Studio space, which is dedicated to the here-and-now of contemporary art and seeks to offer visibility to young and established artists and to bring the museum even closer to contemporary artistic creation.
Using watercolor, drawing, painting and sculptural installations, Marianna Ignataki creates characters outside of boundaries, frames and identities, in a surrealistic universe. Her work ranges from minimalist scenes and portraits to exaggerated, kitschy, rococo inspired compositions. The influences of her personal journey in Greece, China and Germany and the borrowing of anthropological elements from all three of these cultures are evident in all of her visual depictions, emphasizing that horror, fear and "monsters" are the same everywhere and unite us all everywhere.
Curated by: Theodore Markoglou, Art Historian, MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art Curator
Marianna Ignataki was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1977. She studied Architecture at the Technische Universität in Vienna and Visual Arts at the School of Fine Arts of Saint-Etienne.
She has presented many solo exhibitions such as (selection) The Secret Garden at Reiter galleries, Leipzig (2023), The Hole at Bark Berlin gallery (2021), In A Deep, Dark Forest They Were Braiding The Beards Of Parrots In Love at CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery, Athens (2019) and at the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki, Alatza Imaret, Thessaloniki (2018), The End of Magic at Outpost Slotervaart, Amsterdam (2012), Sphinx at Fake Space, Beijing (2011), This Joke Ain’t Funny Anymore at Zina Athanassiadou gallery, Thessaloniki (2009) et al.
She has participated in a number of group shows in Europe, China and the USA, such as Allure of the Bizarre at the National Gallery of Athens (2025), TERRA DIASPORA – Changing Worlds, Kunstverein Göttingen (2024), A:PRÉS D:ESSÉRT, A:D: Curatorial, Berlin (2023), Kreatur, Reiter galleries, Berlin, (2022), Drawing Wow, Minuseins, Vienna (2022), KI-ΝΗΜΑΤΑ at Bouboulina Museum, Spetses (2021), Gods and Monsters, Blick Auf Die Jüngste Vergangenheit, Kunstverein Montez, Frankfurt (2021), Homeostasis, Frontviews at Heit, Berlin (2019), Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens (2019), Am I that name or that image, MoCA Skopje (2019), Reverse the Perspective, Xiangsi Art Museum, Tianjin (2015), Dialog between Chinese and international artists, Taihang Huang Shan, Renmin University Museum, Beijing (2014) et al.
Between 2010-2017 she was based in Beijing. She now lives and works between Berlin and Athens.
