Andreas Vousouras,
Lovebirds,
mixed media,
23 x 25 x 11 cm
Athens 2022

A group exhibition about desire, identity and acceptance, based on a magnificent ode to love and tenderness.

1977, forty five summers ago: Elvis has left the building, universal lament, the king of rock’n’roll is dead. The news rapidly travels all across the world, a world used to communicating through radio, (which kept transmitting his music for days on end), via television, (that kept broadcasting snippets of his numerous films), and newspapers, all of them lamenting his loss.

Andreas Vousouras,
Untitled (AMORE),
mixed media,
30 x 26 x 5 cm
Athens 2022

Andreas Vousouras,
Dreaming of you,
mixed media,
30 x 26 x 5 cm
Athens 2022

Under general consensus by audiences and critics alike, the music performed by Presley, a farm boy hailing from Memphis that went on to conquer the world, united black gospel and blues with white country. The equally black in origin jazz and swing combined with the primarily white rockabilly in a way that brought together an interracial, humane and multidimensional sound. Elvis’ repertoire and all around persona broke away from identity barriers and his voice became a multiracial, multireligious and unifying symbol. Beyond the youthful revolution in ethics, the liberated sexuality and an overall rebellious attitude, expressed through lewd language, eccentric clothes and hairstyles and an image that caused an earthquake, Elvis’ music united a divided America in more than many ways, acting as a prelude for the civil rights movement, feminism, the struggles and radical themes that a few years later, during the sixties, transformed the deeply conservative and dark face of the United States and beyond.

Andreas Vousouras,
Love ritual,
mixed media,
42 x 44 x 4 cm
Athens 2022

Andreas Vousouras,
The first cut is the deeper,
mixed media,
43 x 31 x 4 cm
Athens 2021-2022

Love me tender: Forty five summers after that fateful summer of 1977, Elvis returns. Naturally not in the form of a conspiratorial scenario, one among many that want him very much alive somewhere between Sirius or Hawaii, but rather through an exhibition that pays tribute to his ideas and radicalism. Love me tender: The Alma Gallery in Athens, in cooperation with Thessaloniki’s Lola Nikolaou Art Gallery, have invited 30 artists to think and act upon Elvis’ ground breaking persona, and particularly on the message delivered by Love me Tender, a song which carries a vital history lesson.

Capten,
Love me deeper,
mixed media,
25 x 34 cm
Athens 2021

Capten,
Be my Penguin,
mixed media,
30 x 38 cm
Athens 2022

Love me Tender was composed in 1861, amidst the tortuous civil war. It was however sung by Northern and Southern forces alike. The original song was titled Aura Lee and the tune succeeded in surmounting the division between pro and anti slavery sides, and was hummed along the camp fires of both Northern and Southern troops. When Elvis rearranged the tune with new lyrics in 1956, he did so in full intention of abolishing all sorts of barriers. Tenderness is the message and love is both the signifier and the signified in the context of the song. Particularly here, in Love me Tender, Elvis’ appropriation of Aure Lee, the mellowness of his delivery and the re-imagined lyrics transform the civil war era subject into a hymn to love and tenderness.

Diamantis Aidinis,
Mixed media οn paper
Athens 2023

Dimitra Lazaridou,
Perceptual Fallacy,
print on paper,
53,8 x 68 cm
Athens 2016

In the words of Stefanos Tsitsopoulos, who has curated the exhibition, “one can simply replace the letter t with a g and Love me tender becomes Love me gender. Half a century after its initial rendition, the song is timely again. Love me tender: Desire, tenderness, inclusion, respect and equal rights. The struggle of all sexes and identities, whether it being gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, non binary, queer, pansexual, asexual, intersexual or cisgender commands an end to all biases imposed by a heteronormal establishment. That’s the idea of the Love me Tender exhibition: Visibility, respect, love and the right to self-definition without mockery or any kind of constraint. This idea, encompassed by this particular song is served by the guest artists, by whatever creative means one deems necessary”. More images, more love, more tenderness and more freedom at Alma gallery, which presents for its last exhibition of the season a unique song in marvelous interpretations, translations and “arrangements”.

• Stefanos Tsitsopoulos is a journalist for the Athens Voice newspaper, as well as a fiction writer and radio producer.

Dimitris Kokoris,
The wedding,
ink on paper,
40 x 40 cm
Athens 2021

Emanouil Bitsakis,
Santa Theresa d’ Avila,
acrylics on canvas,
18 x 24 cm
Athens 2022

Giannis Kalyvis,
Reincarnation,
Mixed media on paper,
30 x 42 cm
Athens 2021

Katerina Mertzani,
Acrylic on paper,
70 x 70 cm
Athens 2020

Katerina Mertzani,
Circulus Virtuosus,
Mixed media on paper,
60 x 60 cm
Athens 2022

Kyriaki Mavrogeorgi,
There is a rainbow after the rain,
coloured glazed porcelain,
20 x 20 cm

Konstantinos Patsios,
Love me tender,love me blue,
collage on wood,
50 x 60 cm
Athens 2022

Konstantinos Patsios,
The young and the restless,
mixed media on canvas,
15 x 20 cm
2017

Michalis Kiousis,
Gazin’ the blue,
oils on canvas,
60 x 80 cm
Athens 2021

Nikos Kaskouras,
Portrait 4,
Acrylics on paper,
50 x 70 cm
Athens 2019

Rania Ragkou,
Dream formation1,
oil, spray & acrylics on framed lycra,
70 x 70 cm
2022

Stamatis Theoharis,
Heart and soul,
acrylic on canvas,
80 x 60 cm
Athens 2022

Vana Fertaki,
Couple of pigs with wings,
vernish colour and oil on canvas,
40 x 40 cm

Νikos Stamatiadis,
Eros,
quartz, Crystal de roche, gold, silver,
6 x 8 cm

Νikos Stamatiadis,
Eros,
quartz, Crystal de roche, gold, silver,
6 x 8 cm

Athanasios Dapis,
Untitled,
Mixed media on paper,
42 x 29.7 cm
Athens 2022

Athanasios Dapis,
Untitled,
Mixed media on paper,
42 x 29.7 cm
Athens 2022

Christos Kalfas,
LOVE ME 1,
Gouache and collage on paper,
57 x 76 cm
2022

Christos Kalfas,
LOVE ME,
Gouache and collage on paper,
57 x 76 cm
2022

Fotios Balas,
Love in a hopeless place,
mixed media on canvas,
55 x 35 x 8 cm
Athens 2022

Kostis Damoylakis,
Untitled,
acrylics on canvas,
70 x 70 cm
Athens 2022

Marina Krontira,
Do you love me,
collagel on canvas,
60 x 50 cm
Athens 2022

Marina Krontira,
The King,
collagel on canvas,
60 x 55 cm
Athens 2022

Melina Georgouda,
Love is…,
Mixed media on paper,
50 x 65 cm
Thessaloniki 2022

Melina Georgouda,
love hurts,
Mixed media on paper,
50 x 65 cm
Thessaloniki 2022

Nikos Kryonidis,
Love me tender I,
acrylics on canvas,
60 x 60 cm
Thessaloniki 2022

Nikos Kryonidis,
Love me tender II,
acrylics on canvas,
50 x 50 cm
Thessaloniki 2022

Peggy Kliafa,
LOVE – POWER,
Light box made of plexiglass, empty medical vials of carnitine, led light, cable,
50 x 100 x 15 cm
Athens 2022

Peggy Kliafa,
LOVE,
Assemblage of small round aluminum foils from the back side of the pills΄ blisters on canvas, acrylic spray, frame,
50 x 100 x 7 cm
Athens 2022

Stamatis Laskos,
Blowing Bubbles,
oil on canvas,
60 x 70 cm
Volos 2022

Thalia Gatzouli,
re-,
installation with archival ink on canvas, DKP sheet metal, and mirror, DKP sheet metal,
dimensions variable
Athens 2022