Akrithakis developed a highly personal vocabulary of recurring symbols—arrows, ladders, boats, cages, flowers, and handwritten text—through which he combined humour, melancholy, and existential urgency. His work resists strict categorization, moving fluidly between abstraction and narrative, intimacy and social commentary. Widely exhibited in Greece and internationally, including at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, his work occupies a singular position within European art of the 1960s–80s. Akrithakis remains influential for turning personal experience into a poetic, restless visual language.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Upcoming
2026 Retrospective exhibition, Benaki Museum, Athens
Past
1961 Cultural Center of Neo Iraklio, Athens, Greece
1963 Veltsos Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
1965 Institut Français, Athens, Greece
1966 Clio Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
1967 Amalia Hotel, Athens, Greece
Galerie Hammer, Europa Center, Berlin, W. Germany
1968 “Temperas and Inks”, Goethe Institute (in collaboration with DAAD), Athens, Greece
Galerie Junge Generation, Hamburg, W. Germany
1969 Galerie Mikro, Berlin, W. Germany
1970 Galerie Ubu, Karlsruhe, W. Germany
Decorative Arts Workshop, Athens, Greece
1971 Alexandre Iolas Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
ZM Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
Zoumboulakis Gallery (in collaboration with DAAD and Alexandre Iolas Gallery), Athens, Greece
1972 Galerie Niepel, Düsseldorf, W. Germany
Galleria Di Leone, Venice, Italy
1973 Galleria Il Fauno Due (in collaboration with Alexandre Iolas), Turin, Italy
Kochlias Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
Galerie Alexandre Iolas, Milan, Italy
Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens, Greece
1974 Galerie Tanit, Munich, W. Germany
1977 “Projects and Drawings”, Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery
(in collaboration with Alexandre Iolas), Athens, Greece
ZM Gallery, Thessaloniki, Greece
1978 Trito Mati Gallery, Athens, Greece
Galerie Skulima, Berlin, W. Germany
1979 “Collages ’79”, Design Market, Thessaloniki, Greece
1980 Ionia Gallery, Athens, Greece
Medusa Art Space (Chloe Akrithakis’ Collection), Athens, Greece
1981 Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery, Athens, Greece
1983 Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery, Athens, Greece
1984 “Marlboro-Collages, the Polyphymos Hydroelectric Works”,
Antinor Gallery, Athens, Greece
Insitut Français, Thessaloniki, Greece
Epiloges Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
Artio Gallery, Athens, Greece
1985 “Kites”, Artio Gallery, Athens, Greece
1986 “Circus” (in collaboration with Giorgos Lappas),
Artio Gallery, Athens, Greece
1987 “Cirk–Collages”, Artio Gallery, Athens, Greece
1988 “Drawings”, Athens Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
1989 Opsis Art Gallery, Myconos, Greece
Ioni Gallery, Kifissia, Greece
1990 “Flowers for My Suicide Friends”, Gallery Zalokosta 7, Athens, Greece
Epikentro Contemporary Art Center, Patras, Greece
1991 “Magnifications”, Miraraki Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
1992 “Monsters”, Kreonidis Art Gallery, Athens, Greece
1993 Ileana Tounta Art Center, Athens, Greece
1997 “Akrithakis”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
“Akrithakis”, National Art Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens, Greece
2003 “Alexis Akrithakis”, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2004 “Alexis Akrithakis”, Portalakis Collection, Athens, Greece
2005 Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Greece
2006 “A … as in Akrithakis”, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
2008 Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Greece
2010 “Akrithakis – Sachtouris” Historical Archive – Museum of Hydra island, Greece
“Bar”, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, Greece
2011 Back to The Future, Artissima, Kalfayan Galleries.
Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki, Greece
2014 Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Pallini, Attica, Greece
2015 Mykonos Annex of the Athens School of Fine Arts, Myconos island, Greece
2017 “This drawing is wrong”, Cask Gallery, Larissa, Greece
2018 “Alexis Akrithakis’ Stories”, Municipality of Athens Arts Center, Athens, Greece
2019 “tsiki-tsiki”, The Benaki Museum of Greek Culture, Athens
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1965 “II Internationale Ausstellung objektiver Poesie und Malerei”, Copenhagen, Denmark
1966 “Group Exhibition of Greek Painters”, Gallery 42, Athens, Greece
1967 “8th Panhellenic Art Exhibition”, Zappeion Hall, Athens, Greece
1968 “Ornamentale Tendenzen in der zeitgenössischen Malerei”, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Kunstverein Leverkusen, Schloss Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, W. Germany
1972 “Szene Berlin Mai ’72”, Wurtembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart,
W. Germany
1973 “30 Internationale Künstler in Berlin” (in collaboration with DAAD), Bonn, W. Germany
1978 “XII Αlexandria Biennale”, Alexandria, Egypt
1979 “Contemporary Greek Painters and Printmakers”, National Gallery of Dublin, Ireland
“Von Schlemmer zu Max Ernst”, Museum der Kunst, Hannover,
W. Germany
1981 Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery, Athens, Greece
1982 “Art grec contemporain – Europalia ‘82”, Palais des Beaux-Arts,
Brussels, Belgium
Karen & Jean Bernier Gallery, Athens, Greece
1984 “Collection of Alexander Iolas”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
1992 “Metamorphoses of the Modern: The Greek Experience”,
National Gallery of Art – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens
1993 “Bridge”, Citibank, Athens, Greece.
2003 “The Pioneers”, Leonidas Beltsios Collection, Macedonian Museum of
Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
2004 “A Glance at Post-War Greek Art”, Kalfayan Galleries, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2005 “The Years of Defiance: Art of the 1970s in Greece”,
Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall
2006 “Odyssey – Greek Art from the Last Fifty Years”, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, Switzerland
2007 “Who is here?” Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
2008 “Collages: Cut – Paste”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2009 “Heaven”, 2nd Athens Biennale, Athens, Greece
“Les Années Magiques: Roma – Paris – Berlin”, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens.
2010 “Away and Boil Your Head” (Athens Biennial) at the Fondazione Puglisi Cosentino, Palazzo Valle in Catania, Sicily. Exhibition in the framework of the collaborative project of the Biennials of Marrakech, Istanbul and Athens.
2011 “Insertions in Abstract Writing” (curator: Haris Kanellopoulou), Contemporary Greek Art Institute, Athens.
2013 “Hell as Pavilion”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
“Fofi’s, Berlin, Fofi Akrithaki’s Berlin: 1969-1997”, Museum Alex Mylona-Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece.
“Blue”, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens.
2014 “Desire for Freedom”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
2017 “Antidoron – The EMST Collection at Museum Fridericianum, Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany
2018 “Alexander Iolas: The Legacy”, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
“Αt the Beginning was the Word”. Concepts – Images – Script,
National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China
2024 “There is no there there”, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
