With The Golden Syndrome opening in Psyrri, the Athens-based artist returns to painting and the complicated business of wanting more.
There is always something else to want. Another object. A little more beauty. Recognition, preferably followed by more recognition. Knowing when to stop is a separate skill.
That appetite sits at the centre of The Golden Syndrome, Irini Karayannopoulou’s forthcoming exhibition at a.antonopoulou.art in Psyrri. Curated by Efie Falida, the show opens on Thursday 22 October and runs until 28 November.
Karayannopoulou’s practice moves between painting, collage, drawing, editions and moving image. She also edits JANUS Femzine and works through the artist duo Extra-Conjugale and the film partnership Twin Automat. After exploring other media, including artificial intelligence, this exhibition brings her attention back to paint.
The announcement offers an appropriately excessive calling card: a golden seahorse against a hot red background. Its body looks almost built from treasure, with a surface that makes you want to move closer.
The exhibition text describes paintings assembled through small, repeated deposits of colour. Gemstones, jewellery and chains enter the picture; addition becomes a method. There is a useful connection here between the subject and the work of making it. A painting about accumulation is itself accumulated, mark after mark, until fullness approaches overload.
Gold brings plenty of baggage. It can stand for beauty, status, power or the promise that life will improve once a particular thing belongs to us. The exhibition draws on the search for lost treasure and the myth of the Golden Fleece, where the prize comes attached to a journey and a cost.
The question that interests us is what happens around the wanting. How long does satisfaction last? When does collecting become a way of keeping emptiness at a manageable distance? And once something precious is yours, how quickly does the pleasure of possession acquire a fear of losing it?
Take those questions into the gallery. With the exhibition still ahead, the encounter with the paintings remains to come.
We’re beginning BASE-CAST’s Athens coverage here, with an artist we’ve already contacted and a conversation we’ll return to after the exhibition. Our forthcoming interview with Karayannopoulou will let us follow those questions further.
For now, the starting point is in Psyrri.
THE GOLDEN SYNDROME - IRINI KARAYANNOPOULOU
Curated by Efie Falida
22 October–28 November 2026
Opening: Thursday 22 October, 7–10 pm
a.antonopoulou.art
20 Aristofanous Street, Psyrri, Athens 10554
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