Greek artist Anna Samara will launch her first solo exhibition, titled 'Orion', on June 12 at Hyacinth Gallery in New York City's Lower East Side. The show features new oil paintings created over the past year, drawing from thermal imagery, hunter vlogs, online archives, and digitally altered source material to explore themes of observation, vulnerability, and the shifting relationship between hunter and hunted. Samara, who studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts and completed a residency at Vermont Studio Center, describes the work as a meditation on how images move between digital and physical space, inspired by the myth of Orion.
This exhibition marks a significant milestone for Samara as her first solo show, signaling her emergence as a contemporary painter to watch. By situating her work in a New York gallery on the Lower East Side—a hub for discovering emerging artists—the event highlights the continued importance of physical exhibition spaces for launching artistic careers. Samara's use of thermal imagery and digital source material reflects broader contemporary art trends that interrogate the boundaries between technology, perception, and the natural world.