Zoumboulakis Galleries presents the group exhibition Masking, curated by Katerina Nikolaou, on view from April 23 to May 23, 2026. The opening will take place on Thursday, April 23, from 6 to 9 pm.
The exhibition unfolds around a notion that feels both familiar and quietly concealed: the human impulse to filter, reshape or suppress aspects of the self in order to meet social expectations. The term masking, introduced by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in the late 1960s, describes precisely this complex behavioral phenomenon of adapting through concealment.
In a time when resilience is often framed as an imperative and vulnerability tends to be edited out of public view, Masking shifts the perspective. Rather than treating fragility as weakness, the exhibition approaches it as a fundamental condition of being — one that is at once personal, social and political. Across the works presented, vulnerability emerges not as a fixed state but as a field of negotiation. The participating artists trace multiple narratives that move between the intimate and the collective, revealing how mechanisms of concealment shape identity, perception and human connection. Within this context, the “mask” is not merely a defense, but also a mode of existence. At its core, the exhibition raises a subtle but persistent question: what would it mean to fully acknowledge the inherent instability of the present? And how might our relationship to ourselves — and to others — shift if vulnerability were not only accepted, but consciously embraced?
Participating artists include Elli Antoniou, Giorgos Avgeros, Kostis Velonis, Marina Gennadyeva, Panagiotis Kefalas, Marilena Kranioti, Xenofon Bitsikas, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Stefanos Rokos and Kostas Christopoulos.
The exhibition is realized with the kind support of The Breeder gallery, which has kindly lent works by Malvina Panagiotidi.
