PHOTO:Chloe Akrithaki #studiovisit

Last year during my visit to a friend’s atelier the atmosphere struck me. The structured chaos, the smell of fresh paint drying on canvases brought back childhood memories when paint and brushes were my playground. As an artist’s daughter, art has always been part of my life. Amongst my earliest memories are those of my father in his studio. Only a few photographs of this time exist. As a young adult I photographed him in his studio for an article in a magazine and though some pictures were published unfortunately all the negatives got lost.

Soon after, as a photography student I worked on a large photographic project documenting the daily life of the Greek artist Christos Bouronikos, who works and lives in Berlin. Watching, visiting and photographing artists in their studios was something that I was already familiar with. Since then, a more organized approach evolved, both gradually and naturally and a couple of months ago I started working on the project #studiovisit.

During my stays in Greece, I visit my artist friends in their studios, though each of them is not necessarily a studio in the classical sense anymore but the place wherever they choose to work, be it home, a café or any other public space. Sometimes we meet and just talk, sometimes I take a few pictures, sometimes many. It is a very personal approach, a visit to a friend. We drink coffee, tea, sometimes a beer and talk about art, the art world and how it feels to be an artist today, especially in Greece. It is an ongoing project, a collection of photographs as different as the artists and as diverse as their works.

I enjoy the atmosphere in the studio whether it’s neat and tidy or cluttered and chaotic. Some artists like listening to music while they work and they share their favorite tunes with me, while others prefer to work in silence. In some of my photographs, studio surroundings and details or isolated body parts stand in for the whole person. And sometimes it happens that by knowing me well, at some point of peaking confidence, trust and duty, they start to ignore me. Then I can achieve candid snapshots of them focusing in the artistic creation.
My aim is to provide glimpses into the different ways artists work, the discipline and the motivation it takes to work as an artist. More than a trace of their work and life in Greece in our time, I am looking for these moments of intimacy that exist throughout time and space, the love affair between an artist and the artwork.
(Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the project is on hold and I am looking forward to the end of the lockdown to meet everybody again and continue!) –Chloe Akrithaki

C.V. Chloe Akrithaki is a Greek visual artist based in Prague. Born in Berlin in 1969 into an artistic family, she is the daughter of Alexis Akrithakis. Chloe spent her childhood between Berlin and Athens. Upon graduation, she moved back to Berlin where she studied media design with focus in photography. She has been showcasing her work throughout various exhibitions in Europe. Since 2016 Chloe is also managing The Alexis Akrithakis Estate and curates exhibitions in Greece and abroad.