Stella Kapezanou – Emerald Paintings
Solo Exhibition at Skoufa Gallery, Athens | May 8–31, 2025
Opening: Thursay, 8th May 2025, 18:00 – 22:00
Skoufa Gallery presents the exhibition Emerald Paintings, the first solo presentation of Stella Kapezanou at the gallery, on view from May 8 to 31, 2025. This is the most mature body of work the acclaimed artist has presented to date. Paintings in vivid hues reminiscent of precious emeralds emerge as deceptive portrayals of an idealized life—dazzling, yet at the same time “radioactively flat.”
“How is it possible, in a neo-conservative era, for such technicolor passions of sensuality and seduction to occur?” wonders the exhibition’s curator, Poka-Yio. He goes on to explain: “Kapezanou’s people are painted in vitro, they live in a void. Their figures are stains equal to and on par with the colors of the fabrics, covers, wallpaper, and carpets” that surround them. It is a staged world, one that appears meticulously unkempt. And yet, nothing in it is accidental. Her heroines exist in spaces that are both dreamlike and suffocating. Bodies, gazes, props, and patterns fuse into scenes charged with tension and underlying melancholy.
Kapezanou constructs images that teeter between artifice and observation, sensuality and detachment, crafting a form of art that embraces a “disrespectful flatness.” After all, she is an artist who knows surface firsthand. “She skates across the surface with the grace of a champion,” as Poka-Yio characteristically writes.
In Kapezanou’s practice, structure and surrender coexist in a constant dance. Intuition leads, but discipline gives shape. Her visual language is fluid and precise, visually intricate yet confrontational, reflecting the ongoing tension between tenderness and assertion, beauty and depth. Her painting is a projection of the unconscious, immersed in a glow that seduces and wounds. As Poka-Yio concludes: “To experience it, all it takes is to sink into her deep, hypnotic green.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a printed publication with a curatorial essay and photographic documentation of the works.
Curator: Poka-Yio
Exhibition Design: Panos Dragonas
