Rick Lowe

Documenta 14 was subtitled Learning from Athens; I felt that I had been learning from Athens for a long time even before ever having been there.
—Rick Lowe

Gagosian is pleased to announce two exhibitions of paintings and works on paper by Rick Lowe in Athens: Hic Sunt Dracones (Here Lay Dragons). Mapping the Unknown: A project by Rick Lowe at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138, which takes the form of a dialogue with the institution’s historical collection, and Still Learning from Athens, Lowe’s first exhibition at the gallery’s location in the city.

Lowe is known for works of “social sculpture,” in which he exercises skills in civic organization, political agitation, real estate development, and architectural criticism, and for related paintings and works on paper. Since reading Aristotle, he has maintained a fascination with Greek culture, and upon first visiting Greece in 2015 as a guest of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, he immersed himself in the locale by walking from the suburb of Vouliagmeni to central Athens. Upon returning the following year to begin preparations for his participation in Documenta 14: Learning from Athens, he reengaged with the city as an urban space by working on Victoria Square Project (2016–), an ongoing participatory and collaborative intervention exploring interactions of Greek natives with immigrants and refugees. “After two years of Documenta planning and hosting exhibitions,” writes Lowe, “most artists and visitors moved on; I continued to learn from and build relationships with Greeks and immigrants.”

Lowe’s exhibition at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138 includes works related to both Victoria Square Project and Project Row Houses (1993–2018). In these collaged paintings and works on paper, the artist emphasizes the links between his practical strategies and their visual aspects, combining interpretations of the public initiatives’ realization with variations on mark, palette, and surface texture. Lowe and curators Yorgos Tzirtzilakis and Polina Kosmadaki have also selected historical materials from the museum’s collection, focusing on clothing, jewelry, and other bodily adornments. By juxtaposing his paintings with these items, they explore interpretations of mapping and the resonance of folk handicrafts.