Human nature's capacity and need for self transformation might be what the 10 artworks presented in the show "Ancient Riddles in a Contemporary World"ultimately comment on.

What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? Seven contemporary Greek artists seek answers to ancient riddles.

The “Grandfather” is an excellent  example of Dimitros Ntokos artistic obsession with the scarab. The scarab, commonly used in Ancient Egypt as a frame for ancient maps, stories and portraits, converses with the outline of Dionisis Fragias artwork “The Riddle”.

Although the subject matter depicted on the surface of Fragias’ piece reflects - at first glance - a contemporary urban scene, the actual aluminum is cut out into the shape of a Sphinx, a mythical being found in both Egyptian and Greek mythology. At a second reading, the image depicted on the Sphinx surface is one of creatures undergoing a metamorphosis, which links the viewer back to Ntokos’ scarabs that, again in ancient Egypt, symbolized rebirth in the afterlife.

From antiquity we are space-travelling to a post-modern world: Thodoris Brouskomatis’ digital collages depict an alternate version of sacred icons. In the works “Killer Mama” and “Artificial Lobotomy”,  postmodern, cruel deities take over and invite for a vow of obedience. Those twisted maternal figures seem to haunt the artist, whose “Artificial Mothers” series depict a fragmented, surreal world. Konstantinos Berdeklis also puts the female figure, as it appears in fashion editorials, at the holy stance.

Konstantinos Patsios “Vicious Circle” spans Man's existence across history to the ultimate place of worship, a monument synonymous to ancient Greece, whilst highlighting our mortality.  A pile of "memento mori" fils the sacred temple, reminding to us of the inevitability of death.  In a less savage composition of the artist, “The Watergate”, a sacrifice is implied but not enforced into the consciousness of the viewer.

The same subtle sacred value, but perhaps under an ironic gaze, is found at Dimitris Merantzas piece “Citroen”. Here, even the angle from which the viewer is forced to look at the singular gun - an object of desire here, a commodity enhanced with the commercial cues of the masculine industry of cars - invites for a respectful bow. Is a car brand humanity’s new God?  

“Black Earth” by Philip Tsiaras, sheds our planet’s dark shadow over all man made riddles, myths and rituals, commanding humanity to stand still at the thought of the overpowering deity Nature. Perhaps it is only at the sight of the great leviathans of the deep, as depicted in the artists second work, "Leviathan"that Man will be awed.

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