Kalamata has received a major international distinction, as the mural by visual artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos, depicting Maria Callas on the central Aristomenous Street, was named the best in the world for 2025 by the international institution Street Art Cities. The artwork adorns the city center and has already become a landmark for residents and visitors alike. Through a dynamic artistic approach, the image of the great opera diva Maria Callas is brought to life in a public space, linking street art with contemporary Greek culture.

According to Street Art Cities, “Kalamata just made street art history. @kle_omenis monumental Maria Callas mural has been voted Street Art Cities Best Of 2025, making it the first Greek winner ever. For artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos, this work is a living narrative about place, memory, and cultural continuity.” “Callas isn’t a commemorative portrait, but a symbolic presence, a body carrying culture between past and present,” he says. Nature, roots, fruit, birds: symbols of identity born from the land and the people who inhabit it. The public response was overwhelming. “When a work in public space is embraced like this, you realise it no longer belongs to you, but to the people who live with it,” KLE shares”.

 (Source: Street Art Cities)

“Street Art Cities felt that power too: “Seeing Greece rally behind this mural was incredible. The passion and pride showed how strong the collective voice can be. We will soon visit to hand the award and see this monumental mural in person" shares Tiny Tim one of the co-founders. For KLE, the win is “a moment of gratitude, not a finish line, but motivation to keep working with responsibility toward the public space.” For Kalamata, it’s a reminder that cities can engage with contemporary culture without losing themselves. A mural rooted in place. A community that showed up. A historic first for Greece.” 

(Source: Kleomenis Kostopoulos)

Speaking earlier to Athens-Macedonian News Agency, the creator of the mural, Kleomenis Kostopoulos noted: “The Street Art Cities platform manages around 80,000–85,000 murals worldwide, across approximately 2,000 cities. They approached me and asked whether I would like my work to participate in the competition that selects the best mural of each month, for November”. The public vote did indeed select the work ‘Kalamata’ as the best mural of November 2025, which automatically qualified it as a nominee for the best artwork of the year.

Mural by Kleomenis Kostopoulos in Patras (2022), commemorating the Greek Righteous Among the Nations and the rescue of the Jews of Zakynthos. The mural depicts the Mayor of Zakynthos, Loukas Karrer, the Metropolitan of Zakynthos, Chrysostomos, and Hermandos Mordos with his wife Eftychia and their four children, Rebecca (Becky), Samuel, Moses, and Nina (Source: The Jewish Community of Athens)

The artist himself did not begin in street art. “I am a visual artist and painter,” he says, describing a path that included studies in Athens, nearly a decade in Germany, and ultimately a return to his hometown of Patras. There, as he explains, he felt the need to activate the contemporary cultural landscape in a city and a country which, as he puts it, “have unfortunately been in decline in recent years and are at a very critical point.”

Murals of ArtWalk in Patras: “IN CHAOS FIND JOY” by SOTEUR & The Flying Dolphins, Korinthou 406, Patras 2023(upper left), “Another Bad Hair Day” by D*Face, Korinthou 50, Patras 2022(upper right), “A New Dionysus” by Mon Devane, Skagiopouliou 32, Patras 2022 (lower left), “Jacob’s ladder” by Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Evdimou 4, Patras 2022(lower right)

This need gave rise to Art in Progress, the non-profit organization he founded, as well as a series of international festivals: Re-culture and later ArtWalk, an international mural festival that is currently in the process of holding its 11^th edition. “We have completed 78 large-scale murals in Patras. It may be one of the most recognized festivals in Europe and beyond,” he notes. Through this process came his personal engagement with art in public space. “I was never a street artist. Through the festival, I observed how my fellow artists created these ‘magical’ works on such large scales. That’s how my own involvement with murals began, in 2018,” he explains.

 (Source: Kleomenis Kostopoulos)

“Kalamata was a special case. The work emerged after many discussions with the Municipality, in a city that—according to the artist—was attempting such a central intervention in public space for the first time. “Out of absolute respect for public space, and for the fact that the city was entering the process of acquiring its first mural in such a central location, I wanted to engage with the very face of the city. To depict Kalamata itself,” explains Kleomenis Kostopoulos. “Thus, the choice of Maria Callas was not intended as a tribute to her person, but as a symbolic vehicle. Kalamata had to be a female figure. And because it is an outward-looking city, with tourism and an international audience that visits it, I felt that Callas—also due to a distant ancestral connection—could function as a representative figure,” he notes.

Working during the implementation of the project (Source: urbanjoy.gr)

Although the work was initially “misinterpreted” as a simple portrait, the artist clarifies that “this is not a portrait of Callas, but a portrait of Kalamata.” The mural is, in fact, filled with multi-layered symbolism: life and death, roots and evolution, natural wealth and human loss. On the seabed, for example, the businessman Papadimitriou is depicted swimming—an individual who linked his name to the city’s local products and passed away prematurely. “That’s what is beautiful about art in public space,” he says, explaining that the building itself is experientially connected to this story, as it was where the businessman once lived.

The trees behind the figure lack dense foliage, alluding to a “tragic element,” while the birds—from those with melodious songs to the crow—complete the cycle of life. Even the choice of the photograph of Callas is deliberately “more human, more worn,” far removed from the stylized images of the diva. Finally, the dress functions as a reference to agricultural products and the productive identity of the region.

Working during the implementation of the project. Photo: Dimitris Neofotistos/Street Art: KLE (Source: urbanjoy.gr)

The realization of the project was anything but easy. It began in late October 2025, with weather conditions forcing interruptions due to rainfall, and was ultimately completed in November 2025. Shortly afterward came the international recognition, and “Kalamata” is now competing in the major vote for the best artwork of 2025, facing cities and countries with long traditions in street art and significant international reach. However, the message conveyed by the artist goes beyond personal distinction, serving as evidence of the dynamism of contemporary Greek art.

Street art in Greece is a vibrant formof expression. Especially in cities like Athens and Thessaloniki, murals and graffiti reflect themes such as history, identity, and everyday urban life. Influenced by both local traditions and international movements, Greek street art has transformed public spaces into open-air galleries and has become an important voice for contemporary social commentary.

The Street Art Cities platform lists 574 street art masterpieces in Athens: https://streetartcities.com/cities/athens

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The island of Hydra has been one of the most important cultural centers since the 1950s, attracting renowned figures from the worlds of art and literature, both from Greece and abroad. This legacy has established Hydra as a vibrant hub of artistic creation. Currently, three notable exhibitions offer visitors the opportunity to engage with a wide range of artistic expressions: “Tamata, Sincere Hope”, an exhibition of religious votive offerings from the collection of Lola Daifa; “Nike of Samothrace”, a photography exhibition by Amalia Sotiropoulou; and “Apocalypse Now and Then”, the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art’s 2025 exhibition by Romanian artist Andra Ursuţa. A perfect reason to visit the car-free Saronic island of Hydra.

The Historical Archive and Museum of Hydra (cover photo, visitgreece.gr), in collaboration with the Holy Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is hosting the valuable collection of votive offerings (tamata) by Lola Daifa until August 31. The exhibition, titled "Tamata, Sincere Hope", curated by art historian Louiza Karapidaki, presents over 500 religious votive offerings, gathered with care and reverence from churches and pilgrimage sites across Greece. Displayed in a manner that highlights both their artistic value and profound spiritual meaning, the tamata serve as silent narratives of faith, hope, and devotion.

The President of the Historical Archive and Museum of Hydra, Dina Adamopoulou noted that “...this is not merely a cataloging of objects, but an act of deep cultural sensitivity and inner reflection. The votive offerings are displayed in a way that highlights not only their artistic value but also their moving spiritual power, creating a space of silent communication between the visitor and the sacred”. Votive offerings (tamata) shaped as a female figure in an attitude of supplication from Lola Daifa's collection

Votive offerings (tamata) shaped as a male figure from Lola Daifa's collection

A tama is a type of votive offering, or ex-voto, used in the Eastern Orthodox Church, particularly within the Greek Orthodox tradition. Tamata are usually small metal plaques - made from base or precious metals (commonly silver, but also gold or bronze) - and feature embossed images symbolizing the subject of prayer for which they are offered. These offerings are made to icons or shrines of saints, either as a plea for divine intervention or in gratitude for prayers answered. Tamata can be purchased at shops selling Greek Orthodox religious items and are often hung with a ribbon on poles or hooks near an icon or shrine. This ritual is usually accompanied by a prayer and sometimes the lighting of a votive candle. Pilgrimage destinations across Greece frequently display shrines adorned with numerous tamata, bearing silent witness to the faith and hopes of countless petitioners. (Source: en.wikipedia.org)

A wide variety of images can be found on tamata, each capable of multiple interpretations depending on the context of the prayer. A heart, for example (left) may symbolize a plea for love or healing from a heart condition. Hands (right) or legs often represent ailments of the limbs, while a pair of wedding crowns may indicate a prayer for a happy marriage. A torso might refer to general bodily afflictions, and so on. (Photos: collection of votive offerings by Lola Daifa)

Votive offerings (tamata) shaped as a female figure carrying a baby (left), and an eye, probably indicating an eye affliction (right) from Lola Daifa's collection

A votive offering in the shape of a ship from Lola Daifa's collection

A votive offering figuring a horse from Lola Daifa's collection (right). Album “Votive Offerings – The Lola Daifa Collection”, a scientific study and research into the universe of votive offerings by Dr. Panagiotis Kampanis, Archaeologist – Historian, Militos Publications, 2022 (left). “…when the accumulated ancestral knowledge and the science of the time failed to bring healing, people turned first to magic and then to divine intervention, following the reasoning: “For where God wills it, the order of nature is overcome.” This phrase precisely defines the miracle. The biblical “your faith has healed you” encapsulates this hope, which quickly transforms into conviction. The temples of the ancient god Asclepius, as well as the churches and monasteries dedicated to the many healing saints of Christianity, served as “clinics free of charge”. Each saint has specific healing attributes…”

The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, else called the "Monastery", at the center of the main port and is the Metropolis of Hydra. The inauguration of the Temple dates before the 17^th century. The Cathedral is a three domed basilica with a dome and the aisles are divided by rows of columns.  It is made all of solid white marble with rich and intense decoration. In the temple there are also icons with ornate coverings that were gifts to the church by wealthy Hydraian and naval Warriors. Inside the building of the Cathedral is located a small Ecclesiastic and Byzantine Museum (Source: hydra.gr,  Photo: press.ert.gr)

The Historical Archive and Museum of Hydra houses many items donated by the descendants of the families who dominated the social structure of the island in the 1800's and were instrumental in the launch of the Greek War of Independence. The museum has a distinctive nautical theme which reflects the strategic importance that Hydra held during that time as a safe harbour from which to launch the Greek fleet.

At the Historical Archive and Museum of Hydra, exhibits from the Balcan and first and second World Wars are displayed, as well as traditional costumes from Hydra and figureheads from battleships. A historical picture gallery presents works from many great Greek and foreign artists. There are also exhibits of works of art from 18th and 19th Century, nautical maps and the Map of Riga Feraios. In this place is also been kept safe the silver urn with the stuff heart of the Admiral Andreas Miaoulis (Source: hydra.gr)

At the Historical Archive and Museum of Hydra, a photography exhibition by the artist photographer Amalia Sotiropoulou titled "Nike of Samothrace" is also hosted until August 31. The artist redefines Greek identity through her lens, creating images that balance between the past and the present, the classical and the contemporary. Her work is characterized by a neo-pop aesthetic, where mythology, history, and contemporary culture engage in a dialogue in a bold yet deeply studied manner.

One of the most striking elements in Sotiropoulou’s work is her ability to transform iconic figures such as the Caryatids, the Sirens, or the Nike of Samothrace—giving them a new interpretation through the dynamism of light, color, and composition. Her perspective does not merely replicate classical beauty but reconstructs it, adding elements of modernism and abstraction that challenge the viewer to reflect on their cultural heritage.

Showroom "DESTE Foundation" was inaugurated in June 2009 in the old slaughterhouses of Hydra, which was granted by the municipality. The recently restored and renovated building retains the features and traits of the past, preserving the original elements of its old identity while serving as a unique exhibition space. Every summer the Foundation hosts a series of contemporary art exhibitions on the island, including the assignment of the space to a single artist or team invited to stage a unique, site-specific exhibition.

Above the Slaughterhouse is Apollo Wind Spinner (2020–2022) by Jeff Koons, a 9.1 meter (30-foot) wide reflective wind spinner that greets people entering the port of Hydra on one side and, on the other, welcomes people walking to the building. The face of the wind spinner is that of Apollo. It was first installed at the Slaughterhouse in 2022 for the exhibition Apollo, and remained permanently installed on Hydra, finding its home on the island and becoming one of its new landmarks.

This year, the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art presents Apocalypse Now and Then, a solo exhibition by Romanian artist Andra Ursuţa. The show will be on view at the Foundation’s Project Space until October 31st. This marks Ursuţa’s first major exhibition in Greece.

Andra Ursuţa, Apocalypse Now and Then, Installation view, © Andra Ursuţa; Courtesy the artist, David Zwirner, Ramiken, Photo: Dario Lasagni. Ursuţa draws from the visual language and display strategies of archeological museums to invent faux-historicist artefacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. Both familiar and absurd, the artist displays fragments of sculptures and studio detritus that have been successively built up and destroyed with analog and digital tools. These works explore the history of object-making and sculpture and the ways in which this manually-derived system of knowledge and speculation has come to shape our visual world. Apocalypse Now and Then plunges viewers into a truncated historiography where passingly familiar ancient tropes, grotesque votives, and scarred bronze figures hover between archaeology and fiction.(Source: deste.gr)

Andra Ursuţa, Apocalypse Now and Then, Installation view, © Andra Ursuţa; Courtesy the artist, David Zwirner, Ramiken, Photo: Dario Lasagni.

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The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) presents the first major museum retrospective in Europe of the work of Penny Siopis, one of the most important artistic voices of her generation  (photo by Mario Todeschini). The exhibition For Dear Life. A Retrospective, curated by the institution’s director, Katerina Gregos, is the flagship event of What If Women Ruled the World?, a year-long cycle of exhibitions centered on women artists and artists who identify as female. The exhibition has been extended until 16.2.2025.

Born in South Africa in 1953 to Greek parents, Siopis came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with her historically and culturally charged paintings that exercised a fierce critique against colonialism, apartheid, racism and sexism. She went on to experiment with other media such as installation and film, creating a rich, incisive and poignant body of work that has consistently engaged with the persistence and fragility of memory, notions of truth and accountability, the rights of women and the disenfranchised, the issue of vulnerability, and the complex entanglements of personal and collective histories. For 50 years Siopis has explored the politics of the body, grief and shame as they play out in her home country, South Africa. In the process she has established herself as one of the most important artistic voices of her generation on the African continent and beyond.

Penny Siopis has an MFA and an Honorary Doctorate from Rhodes University, and is an Honorary Professor at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. She has presented numerous institutional solo exhibitions and has participated  in major group exhibitions. Siopis is the recipient of many awards.  Her work is in the collections of major art Institutions worldwide.

The exhibition at EMST features work from each of Siopis’ major series, including the Cake (1980–1984), History paintings (1985–1995), Will (1997–), and Pinky Pinky (2002–2005), as well as a number of her celebrated experimental films.

Penny Siopis, Charmed Lives, 1998-99, Installation of found objects, 3 panels, 200x150x50 cm, Collection of the artist, Photo by Paris Tavitian, EMST. Inspired by having to pack away her mother's personal belongings after she became critically ill, Siopis became aware of how objects can and do come to 'stand in' for a human life; what should be kept, for sentiment or posterity, and what is disposable? As she says, it is the "raw intimate archive gone public". (Source: Artthrob - Contemporary Art in South Africa)

Frieze magazine reported that the excellent retrospective dedicated to Penny Siopis, left a number of visitors wondering why they were unfamiliar with her work despite the fact she was born to Greek parents and many of her contemporaries, including William Kentridge, are household names in Europe (In Athens, Female Artists Have Taken Over the National Museum of Contemporary Art).

Furthermore, Frieze magazine has included the exhibition in the top ten list of shows in Europe in 2024. According to Chloe Stead, associate editor of Frieze, “Writing about the all-woman takeover of EMST earlier this year, I was shocked that I hadn’t previously been aware of the work of Penny Siopis, a South African artist who has been critiquing colonialism, apartheid, racism and sexism for more than four decades … I hope this show – the artist’s first major European solo – will result in more institutional attention for Siopis in the Northern hemisphere” (The Top Ten Shows in Europe in 2024).

Penny Siopis, Patience on a Monument: ‘A History Painting’, 1988, Oil and collage on board, 180x200 cm, William Humphreys Art Gallery, South Africa (left), Restless Republic: Groundswell, 2017, Newspaper cuttings, glue, ink and found object on canvas, 300x200 cm, Collection of the artist (right). Penny Siopis produced what is probably her most emblematic body of work, the History Paintings (1985-1995), during one of the most transformative decades in late twentieth century South African history: the fall of apartheid, the establishment of a democratic state, and the run-up to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. These paintings, which make reference to and subvert the grand tradition of European history painting of the eighteenth century, present colonialism on its last legs, as a visually gluttonous, excessive and decadent ‘feast’ as well as highlighting the trauma inflicted on black people collectively and individually. (Source: EMST). In Patience on a Monument: ‘A History Painting’, a black woman sits on a pile of western cultural debris. Her position and the classical drapery revealing her breast allude to heroic imagery European history painting epitomised in Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People.’ At the same time her posture and the act of peeling a lemon are anti-heroic. The landscape around her is constructed from collaged illustrations torn and photocopied from old history text books presenting the colonial point of view on South Africa’s past. (Source: EMST)

Penny Siopis, Obscure White Messenger, 2010, Single-channel digital video, 15’ 7" (left), She Breathes Water, 2019, Single-channel digital video, 5’ 12" (right) © Penny Siopis, Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Amsterdam. Siopis’ experimental films combine found footage with personal archives and texts to produce poignant meditations on the political, personal and historical cornerstones that marked her life, and that of her home country also, during a time of socio-political change and rights-based struggles in South Africa and beyond (Source: EMST).

Penny Siopis, Will, 1999-, 95 objects, texts by the artist, Variable dimensions, Collection of the artist, Photo by Paris Tavitian, EMST. Will (1999- ) is a monumental, autobiographical conceptual work-in-progress which will only be completed on the artist’s death. As part of this work, Siopis bequeaths a diverse collection of objects to beneficiaries of her choice: friends, family, collaborators from all over the globe. Will is an installation that includes over 700 objects that provide insight into the artist’s collecting habits and interests – artistic and vernacular  –  but also into her own personal history and experience, rooted in its own particular time, place and circumstance. (Source: EMST).

Penny Siopis, Shame, 2021 (detail), Installation, 182 paintings, Mirror paint, oil, enamel, glue, watercolour, paper varnish and found objects on paper, 18,5x24,5 each, Collection of the artist. Siopis' Shame series was born because of the shame that was felt during South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the wake of apartheid. 'When shamed, we lose our dignity and integrity in full view of others', writes Siiopis. […] As much as shame is pain, it also offers the grounds for empathy, encouraging us to recognise shame in others and empathise with situations not immediately our own'. (Source: EMST catalogue of the exhibition)

Penny Siopis, Cake paintings, 1982,Installation view at EMST, Photo by Paris Tavitian. Siopis first garnered attention for her Cake paintings (1980–84), rooted in her early experiences in the family bakery in Vryburg. These feed on cakes as symbols of celebration and commemoration, but also on their ephemerality: elaborate confections are destined to grow stale or be devoured, suggesting the intimate horror of aging and decay. (Source: EMST catalogue of the exhibition)

Penny Siopis, Pinky Pinky, 2002-2004, Installation view at EMST, Photo by Paris Tavitian. Pinky Pinky is an urban legend in South Africa that speaks to the uncanny cultural and sexual tangle of female adolescence: a half-human, half-animal creature that prowls on prepubescent girls in restrooms. Here, the artist plays with the limits of form at its most visceral, “dragging it to the verge of formlessnes”, as she notes. (Source: EMST catalogue of the exhibition)

Penny Siopis, History Lesson, 1990, Pages torn from South African history textbooks, photographs, 127,5x96 cm, private collection, Installation view at EMST, Photo by Paris Tavitian. Pages from apartheid-era South African history textbooks are combined with a pictogram shaped by identical photographs of the artist as a child performing in a school concert. She appears to dance on the white male history that frames her. (Source: EMST catalogue of the exhibition)

Penny Siopis, Wringing Hands, 2002, oil and acrylic on canvas (left), Stranger, 2008, Glue and ink on paper, 36x43,5 cm, Private collection (centre), Atlas, 2020-, Glue, ink and oil on paper, Installation of 84 paintings, Dimensions variable, Collection of the artist (right), Installation view at EMST, Photo by Paris Tavitian.

Read also: What if Women Ruled the World? Women Artists Take Over the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens

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