The Story

Athina Maria Giannoukaki is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Athens, Greece. Her practice navigates the intersection of tradition and innovation, drawing from both classical techniques and contemporary approaches. In 2015, she moved to the Netherlands, where she spent a decade exploring her craft. She studied traditional painting and contemporary sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, deepening her understanding of form, materiality, and artistic expression. Expanding her academic pursuits, she recently earned a degree in Art History from the University of Groningen, further enriching her conceptual framework and critical perspective.

Her work is driven by a deep sense of observation, an intuitive engagement with materials, and a commitment to process. Through repetition and transformation, she explores themes of memory, time, and perception, forging a dialogue between the tangible and the ephemeral. With a foundation in both practice and theory, she brings a thoughtful and dynamic approach to her art, continuously evolving and challenging boundaries.

About her Work

Athina creates sculptures and installations that immerse the viewer in a delicate equilibrium of daily events. Her work explores the tension between form and meaning, constructing an aesthetic language that challenges perception and invites introspection. At the core of her practice lies an inquiry into personal experiences and the ways in which they can be materialized in sculpture. Her work reflects on the limitations of communication, using visual language to articulate the ineffable aspects of reality. Through dialogue, interaction, and a deliberate dissonance between form and content, she examines the dysfunctions of language, embracing ambiguity as a key element.

Movement is central to her sculptural investigations. By isolating motion within her work, she creates fragmented sequences that expose the intrinsic relationship between movement and sound. These compositions emanate a quiet intensity—an unsettling beauty that balances between detachment and latent violence. Inspired by Plato’s allegory of the cave, as an artists she considers movement as a metaphor for the human condition—an ongoing search marked by uncertainty and loss. Awkwardness and playfulness emerge within this exploration, mirroring the vulnerabilities of human experience.

Her works never present a fully resolved structure; instead, they remain open-ended, allowing for multiple interpretations. By focusing on material possibilities and embracing a dynamic interplay of techniques, she constructs personal moments through a process of rules and omissions, acceptance and resistance. Her sculptural practice operates within a pseudo-minimalist framework, offering a nuanced set of allegorical tools that navigate the complexities of form and perception. Through a refined balance of structure and absence, she redefines the boundaries of contemporary sculpture, inviting the viewer to engage with the subtle contradictions inherent in her work.