Barbara Kruger: Untitled (Pride and Contempt)

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) presents legendary American artist Barbara Kruger’s first solo exhibition in Greece, titled Untitled (Pride and Contempt). The exhibition features thirteen newly created, site-specific large-scale works designed for the SNFCC’s outdoor spaces, including a monumental 90-meter-long wall mural on the building of the National Library of Greece. Installed along one side of the Canal and on the Esplanade, the works create an immersive experience that integrates contemporary art into the public realm and the everyday movement of visitors.In Untitled (Pride and Contempt), Kruger’s works–written for the first time in the Greek language–engage with themes of truth, power, critical thinking, and individual agency. Using declarative statements and her signature high-contrast visual style, the works offer sharp commentary on Europe’s contemporary sociopolitical landscape, addressing polarization, the rise of extreme ideologies, and the uncertainty generated by economic, migratory, and geopolitical tensions. At once provocative and inviting, the exhibition challenges audiences to consider their position in the public sphere -who speaks, who is heard, and how power circulates.

Barbara Kruger’s work has been exhibited internationally at major museums and institutions including the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Tate Modern (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Hayward Gallery (London), the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as through large-scale public interventions in cities such as New York, Berlin, and Los Angeles. Through direct and often confrontational language, Kruger seeks an active dialogue with audiences, placing the role of the individual in public space and contemporary society at the center of her practice.Barbara Kruger: Untitled (Pride and Contempt) is curated by Katerina Stathopoulou, with works translated into Greek by Nicholas Yatromanolakis.

Learn more at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.