Art Box
It took us 16 hours, and practically 3 continents to get to Athens with a stopover at Doha along the way. The Qatar capital will soon host a huge Murakami exhibit, but for now, all we had to play with was the terminal, that reminded us of the Middle Eastern version of LaGuardia. Though it has to be said: those elite traveler shuttle buses are mighty impressive.
But back to Athens… It’s a strange time for a Greek capital with widespread talks of defaults and national bankruptcy. Yes, the folks might be scared but they still have the Parthenon and Acropolis here, and now their very own Gagosian to boot. The Greek outpost is located on the magically named Merlin Street and it’s very intimate to say the least. There are only 6 Hirst works on display, and yet like in every other Gagosian location, a focused guard is fiercely watching over the pieces in every room (seriously, what was the security budget for this thing?). The gallery attendants also get gold stars for being the friendliest so far on our journey.
Merlin Street is also filled with orange trees that can be found on every decent street corner (instant Hong Kong déjà vu!) and the art scene is showing promises. The Greek Gagosian girls kindly recommended us few shows: Jonathan Meese effort at Eliades, 20th century Russian painters show at a beautiful B & M Theocharakis Foundation (pictured), and a strong group effort at Rebecca M. Camnhi gallery (that featured works by Ross Bleckner and Nan Goldin among others).
And then of course our hotel concierge named Alexandro recommended a wonderful soulvaki place on Byron, which might be the greatest piece of art of them all.
