ART ISLANDS:Spetses-Two Doors, Two Windows

Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, Left Lizzie Calligas, Right Leda PapaconstantinouThe two Spetsiots artists, Lizzie Calligas’ and Leda Papaconstantinou’s, joint exhibition “Two Doors, Two Windows” in the Ecclesiastical Museum, housed at the Agios Nikolaos monastery in Spetses Island, is one of the most complete and well curated exhibitions we have seen this year. With artworks from different periods, but also very recent created during the Covid-19 lockdown, artworks that the artists looked at them again and rediscovered in their studios, each separately, but also works completed shortly before the exhibition.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Lizzie Calligas & Leda Papaconstantinou Archive

The works of the exhibition “Two Doors, Two Windows”, are different and similar at the same time. Artworks that have inherent affinities. Artworks that coexist and converse harmoniously, giving the viewer the impression that they were created to coexist, because the conceptual axis that joins them, is that both artists (Lizzie Calligas and Leda Papaconstantinou)  narrated each, on her side, their truth, faithfully respecting the aesthetic and conceptual course. While the means of expression they use are many and varied (painting, video, photography, collage, installations and sculptures), something which could be dangerous and one would think that these are two small individual solo exhibitions, since each artist exhibits more than 15 artworks, however, austerity, minimalism, artistic experience and their common visual vocabulary form gradually a top level exhibition. An exhibition that is contemporary and timeless at the same time since it includes the course of each artist. “Through this exhibition, I saw my twenty years course” revealed to us Lizzie Calligas. The exhibition is fragile and solid at the same time, where the dividing lines had been removed and the artworks had been unified without losing their identity and personal seal, since Leda Papakonstantinou’s scope was “To maintain a common aesthetic in every artwork”, something she did with great success, since if someone looks at her works, all undated, he/she has the feeling that they were created just now (!) And as the art historian Denis Zacharopoulos characteristically writes in the Prologue of the Catalog “In a nutshell, we all know that Lizzie Calligas and Leda Papaconstantinou, each in her own way, are Spetsiots, by history as well as by choice. They are old and dear friends, important artists who, through their multifaceted personalities, share their differences and the multiple manifestations of their art, their lives, their island, society and their place in the world”.

For those who find themselves in Spetses Island, the exhibition ends on September 14,  in a very interesting space, which within two years, evolved and transformed, to host the “Two Doors, Two Windows”, the intelligent title of Denis Zacharopoulos, which contains the long-term paths of two important artists.-Efi Michalarou

Info: Ecclesiastical Museum of Agios Nikolaos Monastery, Old Port, Spetses Island, Duration: 7/8-14/9/20, Days & Hours: Daily 18:30-21:00

Lizzie Calligas, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist
Lizzie Calligas, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist
Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Lizzie Calligas, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist
Lizzie Calligas, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist
Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Lizzie Calligas, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist
Lizzie Calligas, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist
Leda Papaconstantinou, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Lizzie Calligas, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist
Lizzie Calligas, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist
Leda Papaconstantinou, Work from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Leda Papaconstantinou, Courtesy the artist

 

 

Lizzie Calligas, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist
Left & Right: Lizzie Calligas, Works from the exhibition ‘’Two Doors-Two Windows’’, © Lizzie Calligas, Courtesy the artist