pop/off/art gallery presents an exhibition by the Greek artist Despina Flessa «συμποίησις / sympoiesis» exploring the category of posthuman. The project is a narrative about symbiosis or, more precisely, sympoiesis – a synergetic interaction of heterogeneous life forms – biological species, genetic codes, communities, worldviews. Flessa consistently continues to work with the problems of the anthropocene, which was recently at the forefront of artistic research, and has now been moved to the periphery due to new socio-cultural challenges.

Despina Flessa uses various forms of visual art, including painting, sculpture, installation and photography, offering different perspectives on pressing environmental issues and new, constantly evolving ecosystems through multimedia. In sculpture and collage, the artist uses leaf prints and casts of human body parts, which are combined to create new hybrids. By mixing media in which she speaks of chimeras, Flessa herself creates endless illusions.

The painting will be presented as a series of abstract landscapes – fluid and monstrous, balancing between familiar floral or landscape images and some distortions and anatomical motives. In the project «συμποίησις / sympoiesis », nature becomes an example of resilience for Despina Flessa, demonstrating the ability to develop adaptive strategies that illuminate the paths through the challenges and uncertainties of today. The project will be the artist’s second solo exhibition at pop/off/art gallery. The exhibition will include works created specifically for the project, some of which were presented at the VIMA Contemporary Art Fair (Limassol, Cyprus) in May 2025.

Despina Flessa (b. 1986, Athens) is a visual artist based in Athens. She has received a BFA from the Athens School of Fine Arts and an MFA from the M.E.T. Master of Fine Arts in Athens. In 2010 she attended courses at the Edinburgh College of Art with the support of the Greek State Scholarship Foundation. She has been awarded the SNF Artist Fellowship Program 2018 of ARTWORKS. She has presented solo exhibitions in galleries including Pop/off/art Gallery in Moscow and Zoumboulakis Galleries in Athens, and has participated in international group exhibitions in galleries and art spaces including Eidyllia Οdos at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete and Technopolis City of Athens 2022, Art Athina 2022 with Zoumboulakis Gallery, The Others Art Fair in Turin with Frontviews e.v. 2021, Frontviews at HAUNT in Berlin 2020, The State of Emergency Has Become the Rule at CAN Gallery Athens 2019, Overview Effect: Encountering the Cosmos at MOMus Experimental Center for the Arts Thessaloniki 2019, Still Here Tomorrow by ARTWORKS at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Athens 2019, International Women's Day Exhibition organized by UNESCO at the Salle des Pas Perdus in Paris 2017. Since 2020 she has been an active member of the art collective Frontviews in Berlin. Lives and works in Athens.