Jannis Psychopedis presents a new exhibition at the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, titled “Landscapes of Memory. The Ones I Kept.” Rather than a conventional retrospective of his 65-year career, the show features around 70 works from his personal collection—pieces he kept rather than sold—spanning from 1962 to the present. The exhibition is arranged in nearly twenty scenographic sections, mixing painting, collage, constructions, and mixed media, and is designed as a “small public square” to provoke direct dialogue with viewers, echoing his 1960s practice with the “A” art group of displaying art in working-class neighborhoods.
The exhibition matters because it challenges the typical retrospective format by focusing on the artist’s own selection of works that represent a continuous thread in his practice, rather than his most famous or avant-garde pieces. Psychopedis argues that art must fulfill a social and political purpose, and the show embodies his belief that painting can engage the contemporary world directly, without fear of friction. The subtitle “The Ones I Kept” underscores a personal and curatorial statement about artistic integrity, memory, and the role of the unsold work in sustaining creative continuity across decades of formal and material change.