The art venue Alma Mater (Emmanouil Benaki 62, Exarchia, Athens), in collaboration with Art Curator Paris Kapralos and the visual arts promotion platform ARTgrID, presents to the Athenian art-loving public the solo painting exhibition of visual artist Anna Gioti, titled “No Elevator Comes This Way”, in Athens. At the same time, the exhibition is also accessible online in collaboration with ARTgrID from this page until 20 December 2025.

In his curatorial note, Mr. Kapralos writes: “No Elevator Comes This Way” – the title of the exhibition suggests the existence of a level, or rather a mental state, that is not accessible through the familiar and automated mechanisms of everyday life. It does not ascend, but descends. It does not belong to the realm of external reality, but to the realm of inner exploration. It is the space that contemporary life, with its pace, structures, and imperatives, has left outside its field of vision – and which Anna Gioti’s works consistently and persistently retrieve.

Her works compose a peculiar universe, where the line becomes the primary tool of expression. Through the persistent use of ink and the technique of line drawing, the artist constructs enclosed, psychic worlds, with intense interiority and a rhythmic, almost hypnotic structure. Repetition, detail, and the continuous flow of patterns and symbols reveal a distinct form of psychogeography, where the urban landscape is transformed or reformulated into a dimension of the Unconscious.

Although narrative in nature, the works do not follow a linear narration; the story emerges through the recurring presence of characters, their relationship to the environment, the silence that surrounds them, and the multitude of visual elements that compose each scene. This is a form of narrative art, where the image itself functions as a vessel of stories – sometimes abstract, sometimes specific – that remain open to interpretation.

Central to Anna Gioti’s work are human figures: thoughtful, seated, observant, or solitary. They appear as fixed points within a chaotic environment, flooded with lines, organic shapes, trees, clouds, waves, and architectural references. The contrast between the simplicity of the forms and the complexity of the surroundings creates tension, but also a fragile balance.

Anna Gioti’s visual vocabulary alludes to the freedom of automatism, at times flirting with the logic of doodle art or zentangle, yet never confined to it. The nature of her work also references the tradition of Art Brut, in the sense of spontaneous, raw creation that is unbound by academic rules or technical forms. The repetition of patterns suggests an intense psychological engagement with detail and form, as if each piece is a new attempt to map the inner world.

Through her works, Anna Gioti records a personal, often introspective but deeply poetic way of seeing the world – a world in which the line is not simply a medium, but an experience.”