Prizing Eccentric Talents III

Athanasios Argianas (Athens, 1976) lives and works between Athens and London.
Rooted primarily in sculpture, and spanning painting, text, performance and music, his artistic practice is open, interdisciplinary and deeply influenced by a background in music.

His work operates in a realm between affect and methodology.

Interested in how a song or written language can physically occupy physical space, or how a natural form can generate a piece of music, he looks into the physicality of sculpture as opposed to the immateriality of music and language;  often employing arbitrary, invented systems of subjective translations.

Hollowed Water, his first major solo show in a public institution in the UK, was on view at Camden Art Centre, London, in 2020, and toured to ARCH, Athens in 2021. He has held solo exhibitions at Renata Fabbri, Milan (2022–23); On Stellar Rays, New York (2017, 2015, 2013); Aanant & Zoo, Berlin (2015, 2013); Max Wigram Gallery London (2011, 2009, 2007); The Breeder, Athens (2011, 2007); and Arcade (with Len Lye), London (2008), amongst others.

Selected gallery group shows include Madragoa, Lisbon (2022); Lisson Gallery, London (2016); Mor Charpentier, Paris (2011); RODEO, Istanbul (2011); and Grimm, Amsterdam (2010).

His work was featured at the 30th São Paulo Biennial (2012), Documenta 14 (2017), Fridericianum, Kassel (2017); Kunsthalle Wien (2016); Fondazione Prada, Ca Corner della Regina, Venice (2014); Performa 13, New York (2013); Tate Britain, London Art Now Live (2011), Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London and The Barbican Art Gallery, London (2008).

Species Counterpoint, a monograph on his work was co-published in 2021 by Lenz, Milan, with Camden Art Centre, London, and ARCH, Athens with essays by Dan Fox, Quinn Latimer, Jennifer Kabat and an interview with the artist and Martin Herbert.

He releases music with the Lo Recordings label in London (under his own name and the moniker Gavouna) and runs Daedalus Street with Rowena Hughes, a project facilitating the development of new artworks by invited artists in their studio in Athens.