If you are an expat living in Athens or visiting the city, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) offers a rich programme of Greek and international contemporary art. From immersive installations and sculpture to photography and socially engaged artworks, EMST is a must-visit destination for anyone interested in modern culture and artistic innovation.
Here is a complete guide to the current EMST exhibitions, listed in order of when they close, so you can plan your visit and catch the shows before they end.
Table of Contents
- WOMEN, together – Until 25 January 2026
- Sea Garden – Until 8 February 2026
- The Greek Month in London 1975, 50 Years On – Until 8 February 2026
- Kasper Bosmans: The Fuzzy Gaze – Until 15 February 2026
- Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress – Until 15 February 2026
- Emma Talbot: Human/Nature – Until 15 February 2026
- Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives – Until 15 April 2026
- Theodoros, Sculptor: In Lieu of a Retrospective – Until 29 March 2026
- Hadassah Emmerich: Epicurean Eden – Ongoing
WOMEN, together – Until 25 January 2026
WOMEN, together is the first re-hang of EMΣΤ’s collection in its permanent home, the former FIX brewery, since 2019. The exhibition addresses the under-representation of women in art, highlighting exclusively the work of women artists.
Curated by Katerina Gregos and Eleni Koukou, the show features 49 works by 25 artists of different generations, including pieces from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift and a long-term loan of a major work by Etel Adnan (Lebanon), courtesy of the Saradar Collection.
The works explore gender, identity, social and political issues, materiality, and the ephemeral nature of things. Some incorporate everyday objects transformed through meticulous sculptural processes, while others investigate history, memory, and cultural identity, especially in Greece and the wider Mediterranean and Southeast Europe.
Photo by Paris Tavitian
Featured artists include: Etel Adnan, Diana Al-Hadid, Ghada Amer, Helene Appel, Bertille Bak, Karla Black, Hera Büyüktaşciyan, Christina Dimitriadis, Marina Gioti, Eleni Kamma, Maria Loizidou, Tala Madani, Despina Meimaroglou, Annette Messager, Tracey Moffatt, Eleni Mylonas, Rivane Neuenschwander, Cornelia Parker, Agnieszka Polska, Christiana Soulou, Aspa Stassinopoulou, Maria Tsagkari, Paky Vlassopoulou, Aleksandra Waliszewska, and Gillian Wearing.
The collaborative project This is not a feminist project (Vasia Ntoulia & Mare Spanoudaki) presents a timeline of feminism in Greece from 1979 to today, highlighting neglected histories and contemporary voices. notafeministproject.gr
Sea Garden – Until 8 February 2026
Artists: Claude Cahun, Dora Economou, Catriona Gallagher, Ana Mendieta, Margaret Raspé, Athena Tacha
The Sea Garden, curated by Danai Giannoglou and Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou, is the winning proposal of the second Open Call by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMΣT), an initiative launched in 2023 to support curatorial research and emerging curators in Greece. The Open Call reflects the polyphonic character of EMΣT’s exhibition programme and its engagement with the Museum’s Collection and Archive.
Photo by Nysos Vasilopoulos
Photo: Paris Tavitian
Taking its title from Sea Garden (1916) by American poet H.D., the exhibition brings together works that explore natural landscapes and the subtle yet decisive ways humans intervene in them. Seen through reflections, traces, and materials, these landscapes appear as places of shelter, pressure, exhaustion, and transformation.
The exhibition is anchored in the practice of Athena Tacha, whose works from the EMΣT Collection frame landscape as sculptural, bodily, and relational. Using natural materials such as pebbles, petals, and shells, her works remain open to multiple interpretations, shifting between sculpture, clothing, space, and performance.
In dialogue with Tacha’s practice are works by artists including Margaret Raspé, Catriona Gallagher, Dora Economou, Claude Cahun, and Ana Mendieta. Together, they examine landscape as a site shaped by ecology, identity, memory, and the tension between dryness and wetness—where land meets sea and boundaries remain fluid.
The exhibition is accompanied by the public programme I even lost my shadow, featuring contributions by Stefanos Levidis, Danae Io, Margaret Raspé, Catriona Gallagher, and Fredj Moussa.
Learn more about the exhibition’s public programme here.
📍 Floor 3, Project Room 2
The Greek Month in London 1975, 50 Years On – Until 8 February 2026
Art at a Time of Political Change
Curated by Polina Kosmadaki
As part of its mission, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (ΕΜΣΤ) seeks to cultivate practices of memory that counter today’s culture of historical amnesia. By revisiting key moments from recent history and art history, the museum highlights events that continue to shape contemporary Greece.
Within this framework, ΕΜΣΤ presents a commemorative exhibition marking 50 years since The Greek Month in London (November–December 1975), a landmark cultural initiative organised shortly after the fall of the military dictatorship. The exhibition focuses on the visual arts programme of the original event, which included two major exhibitions: Four Painters of 20th Century Greece and Eight Artists, Eight Attitudes, Eight Greeks.
Both exhibitions were curated by the internationally acclaimed Greek curator Christos Joachimides (1932–2017) in collaboration with British art historian Sir Norman Rosenthal, then Head of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). Presented in London, they marked the beginning of an essential dialogue on contemporary Greek art and the avant-garde in the post-junta era.
Modelled after the French and German cultural “Months”, The Greek Month in London was organised by the Press Office of the Greek Embassy and supported by the National Trust for Greece. Its aim was to introduce British audiences to Greece’s contemporary cultural production while acknowledging the enduring influence of its past. The programme included visual arts exhibitions, Greek cinema week (films by Theo Angelopoulos, Michalis Cacoyannis), dance and music performances, poetry readings, and exhibitions dedicated to George Seferis and resistance publications from the dictatorship years.
In the field of visual arts, Four Painters of 20th Century Greece, presented at the Wildenstein Gallery, showcased leading figures of Greek-centred modernism: Theophilos, Fotis Kontoglou, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, and Yannis Tsarouchis. In parallel, Eight Artists, Eight Attitudes, Eight Greeks, held at the ICA and forming the core of the current exhibition, presented contemporary artists—many from the Greek diaspora—engaging directly with European artistic currents of the time.
On the occasion of this 50th anniversary, ΕΜΣΤ presents an “essayistic” exhibition combining artworks and archival material, much of it shown to the public for the first time. Drawing on discussions with Christos Joachimides prior to his passing, the exhibition highlights the curatorial vision that helped define “Greek avant-garde art” and explores the role of artistic practice in political debate following the junta.
The exhibition includes works by Stephen Antonakos, Vlassis Caniaris, Chryssa, Jannis Kounellis, Pavlos, Lucas Samaras, Takis, and Costas Tsoclis, drawn from the EMΣΤ collection and other Greek collections, alongside original texts and an illustrated timeline.
📍 Floor 3, Project Room 1
Kasper Bosmans: The Fuzzy Gaze – Until 15 February 2026
Kasper Bosmans’ work combines sculpture, installation, painting, and drawing, exploring mythology, folklore, pop culture, and anthropology through a playful, queer lens. His art observes and reinvents narratives from different societies, highlighting local traditions and mythological iconography in contemporary life.
The Fuzzy Gaze (2025), Bosmans’ new commission for EMΣΤ, examines the shifting roles of animals in human life. This large-scale mural depicts a procession of animals—horses, teddy bears, dissected frogs, feline eyes—in domestic, circus, and zoo contexts, exploring themes of companionship, entertainment, and commodification. Heraldic motifs and artificial enclosures highlight the human aesthetic control of animals, while the work evokes the feeling of moving through a zoo or circus where animals’ stares and gestures captivate viewers.
The work has been commissioned for the exhibition Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, running 15 May 2025 – 15 February 2026.
Biography:
Born in 1990 in Lommel, Belgium, Bosmans studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, and at HISK – Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Ghent. He has held solo exhibitions in Paris, Milan, New York, Utrecht, and Brussels, and participated in major group exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, Dhaka Art Summit, Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona), and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
📍 EMST In Situ – Foyer
Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress – Until 15 February 2026
Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki
The first solo exhibition in Greece of Sammy Baloji, internationally acclaimed for exploring cultural identity, colonial history, and industrial exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The exhibition brings together installations, video works, and photographic series from the past twelve years, including a new commission, The Meandering (2025). Baloji’s works examine the impact of Belgian colonisation, the legacy of the pre-colonial Kongo empire, and ongoing corporate resource extraction in Katanga, blending historical research with contemporary critique.
Installation view: Framer Framed, 2018. © Framer Framed / Eva Broekema
Courtesy of the artist and Imane Farès, Paris.
Baloji lives and works between Lubumbashi and Brussels. His work is also featured in the group exhibition Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives at EMΣΤ (15 May 2025 – 15 February 2026).
Biography:
Born in 1978 in Lubumbashi, DR Congo, Baloji co-founded the Rencontres Picha / Biennale de Lubumbashi (2008). He is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, has received multiple international awards, and has participated in major exhibitions including the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Bienal, documenta 14, and the Sydney Biennial. His work is held in important collections, including Tate, London
📍 Ground Floor
Emma Talbot: Human/Nature – Until 15 February 2026
Emma Talbot is known for her large-scale silk paintings, combining painting, drawing, animation, and sculpture. Her works often explore feminist discourse, ecopolitics, and human-nature relationships, blending mythological motifs, vibrant colours, and calligraphic texts to pose questions about ethical engagement with the natural world.
Her new commission, Human/Nature (2025), includes a monumental painted silk installation and an accompanying animation, You Are Not the Centre (Inside the Animal Mind). A female protagonist – a version of Talbot herself – navigates non-human perspectives, experiencing the world as dogs, spiders, deer, and captive birds might perceive it.
The silk installation features chimeras – hybrid creatures combining human and animal forms – representing human fantasies and the entangled relationships between humans, animals, and nature. A three-dimensional fabric work complements the installation, showing both separate human and animal elements and their shared physical and energetic forms, reflecting alternative ways of being with the natural world.
The work has been specially commissioned for the exhibition Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives.
Biography:
Born in 1969 in Stourbridge, England, Talbot trained at the Royal College of Art, London, and was a Rome Scholar at the British School of Rome.
She has held solo exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Kunsthaus Biel, Switzerland; Collezione Maramotti, Italy; DCA Dundee; East Side Projects, Birmingham; and Gemeentemuseum, The Hague. Her work has also appeared in major group exhibitions including the 59th Venice Biennale, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, and STUK Leuven.
In 2020, she received the Max Mara Art Prize for Women.
📍 Floor 2
Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives – Until 15 April 2026
Curated by Katerina Gregos
This exhibition centres on animal rights and well-being, highlighting the urgent need to recognise and defend the lives of non-human animals in an anthropocentric world that exploits and oppresses them. Inspired by John Berger’s 1980 essay Why Look at Animals?, the show examines the changing relationship between humans and animals, particularly how animals have become increasingly distanced, objectified, and commodified.
The exhibition explores the ethics and politics of our treatment of animals, revealing the often-hidden violence behind systemic abuse, from domestic and urban settings to factory farms and threatened natural habitats. Visitors encounter works that question human exceptionalism, expose colonial, industrial, and technological destruction of habitats, and highlight animal activism and knowledge. On the upper floors, the exhibition shifts to poetics, ecofeminism, animism, play, and animal creativity, envisioning a future of more harmonious interspecies coexistence.
Featured Artists
Ang Siew Ching, Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin), Sammy Baloji, Elisabetta Benassi, John Berger, Rossella Biscotti, Kasper Bosmans, Xavi Bou, Nabil Boutros, David Brooks, Cheng Xinhao, David Claerbout, Marcus Coates, Sue Coe, Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost, Mike Dibb & Chris Rawlence, Mark Dion, Radha D’Souza, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Jakup Ferri, Alexandros Georgiou, Igor Grubić, Gustafsson & Haapoja, Joseph Havel, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Annika Kahrs, Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Anne Marie Maes, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Nikos Markou, Angelos Merges, Wesley Meuris, Tiziana Pers, Paris Petridis, Janis Rafa, Rainio & Roberts, Marta Roberti, Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni, Lin May Saeed, Panos Sklavenitis, Sonic Space, Jonas Staal, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Oussama Tabti, Emma Talbot, Nikos Tranos, Maria Tsagkari, Dimitris Tsoumplekas, Euripides Vavouris, Kostis Velonis, Driant Zeneli.
The exhibition places ecological justice and the rights of non-human life at the heart of contemporary art discourse, inviting visitors to reflect on animals as integral members of our ecosystems, not objects to exploit.
📍 EMST (multiple spaces)
Theodoros, Sculptor: In Lieu of a Retrospective – Until 29 March 2026
Curated by Stamatis Schizakis
This exhibition is the first attempt to interpret and present the work of sculptor Theodoros (Papadimitriou) after his death. It brings together a significant body of his work and archival material he bequeathed to EMΣΤ, highlighting his forward-thinking approach and his legacy in Greek sculpture. Theodoros revitalised sculptural language in an era dominated by printed and audiovisual media, experimenting with performances, sound sculptures, conceptual works, and early institutional critique. He emphasised the artist’s social and political role, maintaining a distinct presence in newspapers, radio, and television.
To challenge the conventional retrospective format, the exhibition includes works by five contemporary Greek artists – Nikos Arvanitis, Paky Vlassopoulou, Iris and Leda Lykourioti (A Whale’s Architects), Kostas Bassanos, and Yiannis Papadopoulos – whose practices resonate with Theodoros’ concerns. The exhibition’s scenography, designed by architect Yannis Arvanitis, organizes works in flowing, interconnected spaces that culminate in a dynamic environment where artworks and visitors coexist.
Photo by Paris Tavitian
Photo by Paris Tavitian
Featured Artist: Theodoros (Papadimitriou)
Born: 1931, Agrinio, Greece | Died: 2018, Athens
Studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts and Académie du Feu. He taught at California State University and later at the National Technical University of Athens. Theodoros participated in Europalia Brussels (1982), major Greek and international exhibitions, and staged numerous solo shows including his 1984 retrospective Journey’s Marks, Traces of Touch – Objects, 1953-1983 at the National Gallery, Athens. He bequeathed 110 works and his studio to EMΣΤ..
📍 Floor 2
Hadassah Emmerich: Epicurean Eden – Ongoing
Exhibition Cycle: WHAT IF WOMEN RULED THE WORLD? Part 2
Hadassah Emmerich is known for her exuberant paintings, collages, and murals that weave stylized representations of exotic fruit, body parts, and vegetal elements into bold, fluid compositions. Her work explores the body, identity, and the commodification of desire, blending sensuality with a kaleidoscopic, post-Internet aesthetic. Emmerich has developed a distinctive technique using vinyl cut-outs covered in ink and impressed onto canvas or walls, creating immersive patterns that reference advertising, Pop Art, and contemporary visual culture.
For her first presentation in Greece, Emmerich has created a new installation transforming the museum’s ground floor frieze and Education Department space, producing an immersive and colorful environment that is both visually striking and child-friendly.
Artistic production | Coordination: Yannis Arvanitis
Featured Artist: Hadassah Emmerich
Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Maastricht, HISK Flanders, and Goldsmiths College, London. Recent exhibitions include Skin of the Shapeshifter (SUPRAINFINIT, Bucharest, 2023), Botanical Body Bliss (Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, 2023), False Flat (Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, 2022), and Abrasive Paradise (Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, 2022). Her work is included in public collections such as the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, MuZee, Oostende, and the Flemish Parliament, among others.
📍 Foyer and Education Space – Mezzanine
Visitor Tips for EMST in Athens
- Location: EMST is at Fix, next to the Syngrou-Fix metro station, making it easily accessible for expats and visitors.
- Tickets & Opening Hours: Check the official EMST website for updated opening hours, ticket prices, and guided tours.
- Plan Your Visit: Organise your itinerary to see exhibitions in order of closing dates, ensuring you don’t miss the shows ending soonest.
National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens website: https://www.emst.gr/en
