About

Dio Horia was founded in Mykonos in 2015 as a curatorial project space and an artist residency with the aim of bringing back the artistic vibrancyand social and cultural diversity to the island that was becoming increasingly commercialized and gentrified. The space quickly became known for showcasing young and underrepresented artists through institutional-level exhibitions. The name Dio Horia stems from that origin: it is inspired by the book of Greek architect Aris Konstantinidis, “Dio Horia from Mykonos”, where the phrase “Dio Horia” means “two spaces”, or “two villages”, reflecting the dichotomy within the characters of both the island and the gallery itself—those between shiny surface and soulful nature, commercial success and artistic idealism. In spite of being open only during the summer months, the gallery rapidly flourishedinto an important internationally recognized venuefor discovery and development of diverse and visionary artists. Over the years, it served as a unique of its kind and crucially important forum for contemporary art in Mykonos.

 

After seven successful years in Mykonos, Dio Horia opened a new chapter in its history as a year-round gallery, organizing five exhibitions a year at its new 250-square-meter space in central Athens. The new gallery is situated at the location of the 4th c. AD Villa Urbana, right next to the Acropolis Museum, where contemporary artworks are presented in an ongoing dialogue with the artifacts of antiquity discovered on site.

While the exhibition space in Mykonos is no longer open, the Dio Horia artist residency on the island remains active, reflecting the gallery’s continuing dedication to cultivating meaningful, long-term relationships with its collaborating artists and its natureas a social space where interpersonal dialogues can be fostered without intermediation of technology, commerce, or corporate media.

 

The year 2025 marks the beginning of a new chapter in the gallery’s ethos.

After years of focusing on development and discovery of unknown artists and on broadening the geographical, economic, and gender scope of the art scene in Greece, Dio Horia’s central mission now is to incubate opposition to the worldwide political climate of exclusion while cultivating acceptance of cultural difference and a belief in equal opportunities for all.

The gallery defines its main priority as that of placing a spotlight on the overwhelming forces of violence, inequality, intolerance, alienation, and unbridled capitalism that have become overwhelming and undeniable in the second decade of the 21st century.

 

Dio Horia sees itself not as a rebel but a “change agent,” offering an open and non-didactic platform that doesn’t intend to impose or dictate any singular experience on the viewer but to cultivatean open field where a multiplicity of interpretations can spring forward. The exhibition program is inspired by the belief that artistic practices broaden the scope of human agency and is centered around the artists whose work engenders connection and open discourse. The gallery supports and celebrates artworks that look back to think about the present, artworks that use human intimacy as a key to understanding collective memory, and artworks whose personal narratives have the power to challenge and illuminate.

 

DIO HORIA GALLERY is a member of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and a member of the Hellenic Art Galleries Association.