Athens 166 73
Greece
Opened in June 2025, the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection Space in Athens is conceived as a hybrid environment that reimagines the private nature of a collection by extending its scope toward public engagement.
Integrating open storage, library, archive and viewing rooms, the design of the space goes beyond static display and encourages layered encounters. Seeking to foreground both intellectual and sensory experience, the space invites curators, researchers, and artists to reconfigure the collection, revealing new constellations and narratives. On the occasion of exhibitions and events, visitors are likewise welcome to move through the space at their own pace and engage with its interactive elements.
Developed over twenty years, the collection brings together works from the 16th century to the present encompassing artists from Greece and abroad. Spanning across diverse media, it includes painting, sculpture, photography, and new media, as well as folk and applied arts objects, historical documents, books, and archives. Particular attention is given to women artists and practitioners from the Greek diaspora and the wider Mediterranean region, foregrounding networks of influence that have historically been overlooked or marginalized. The collection also incorporates works that intersect with literature, performance, and research-based practices, reflecting Panagopoulos’s interest in art as an intersectional field of knowledge and inquiry.
The public programme of exhibitions and parallel events brings the collection into motion. Its inaugural exhibition, Fernweh, or Nostalgia for Unknown Lands, curated by Katerina Hadji, explored the deep human desire to understand the world and the breadth of human experience through the lens of the entire collection, complemented by a five-part programme of talks, performances, and research-led presentations by invited art professionals. The forthcoming exhibition, Everything I Know is a Borrowed Map, curated by Akis Kokkinos, continues this approach, while offering a distinct curatorial reading of the collection and its potential narratives.
Having entered a new chapter of outward engagement and dynamic presence, the Irene Y. Panagopoulos Collection looks ahead to expanded collaborations and future activations in its permanent space that will further enrich its vision.
About Irene Y. Panagopoulos
Born in London, Irene Y. Panagopoulos studied Fine Arts with a focus on sculpture and photography at Mills College in California. Since 2006, she has been developing a multifaced collection establishing a deep-rooted commitment to artistic dialogue. Her vision for the collection emphasizes intimacy and direct engagement, fostering connections between viewers, artworks, and the histories they carry.
Irene Y. Panagopoulos actively supports major institutions including the British Museum, Tate, and Delfina Foundation—where she serves as a Trustee and was a collector-in-residence in 2018. She is also a Trustee of the Dia Art Foundation, the National Gallery of Greece, and Northeastern University in Boston, and serves on the Board of Advisors of Tavros Space, Athens. A member of the Honorary Committee of We Dream Under the Same Sky, she contributes to initiatives supporting displaced populations through the arts. Over the years, she has contributed to exhibitions at the Museum of Cycladic Art, EMST Athens, the Greek Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, the Athens Biennale, and Documenta.
Irene Y. Panagopoulos currently lives in Athens, where she serves as President of Magna Marine Inc.
