Artists

Despina Meimaroglou

Press release

Despina Meimaroglou (b. 1944), one of the most important artists of her generation, is known for systematically deconstructing the language of the media to expose how it manipulates the subject at the receiving end of its message, force-feeding stereotypes. Meimaroglou, who worked in the media and advertising industries in her early years, developed a hybrid practice of re-contextualising printed matter－newspaper images and texts, magazine articles, advertisements and TV commercials－to lay bare how the media utilise stereotypes to fashion their own brand of reality. Her work spans a wide range of media, from printmaking to video installation and book art, to probe issues of gender and gender-based violence, as well as social and political violence against individuals and communities. Contemporary overexposure to images and narratives of violence resulting in its normalisation forms a core pillar of her thought and practice. Organised in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition features works from all the major series in Meimaroglou’s career. It brings together works from the ΕΜΣΤ Collection, private collections, and direct loans from the artist. As a comprehensive survey, it reflects Meimaroglou’s enduring engagement with violence in all its nuances and manifestations, across cultural and geographic boundaries－violence against women, social groups, communities, or peoples, state repression, terrorism, and, even gun ownership, all come under her microscope. Meimaroglou and her work are organically linked to the broader theme of cosmopolitanism－not just because of the artist’s roots in one of history’s most robust communities of the Greek diaspora, in a city that was, in every sense, a cradle of Levantine cosmopolitanism, but more so because of the mental and emotional bedrock on which her work builds: a genuine tolerance for difference, an openness to the Other, and a deep concern for humanity that never fails to translate into intimate personal engagement. Opening: 10 December 2026 | 19:00 – 23:00 Curated by Eleni Koukou BIOGRAPHY Despina Meimaroglou (b. 1944, Alexandria, Egypt) lives and works in Athens. She studied painting, printmaking, and graphic arts at Maidstone College of Art, UK (1961–1965). In 1966, she settled in Athens, initially working in visual communication and advertising before turning exclusively to the visual arts in the early 1980s. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions and participated in landmark group shows in Greece and abroad, including (selected): Women, together, ΕΜΣΤ Collection (2023–2025); 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art (2009); Genius Seculi – Despina Meimaroglou & Deimantas Narkevicius, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2008); The Athens Effect, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, and Fondazione Mudima, Milan (2006–2007); Fusion Cuisine, DESTE Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art, Athens (2002); and Mythologies of the Book, Frankfurt International Book Fair (2001).