The Breeder

The Breeder Gallery is one of Athens’s most exciting cultural platforms. Co-founded by George Vamvakidis and Stathis Panagoulis, the gallery originated from The Breeder magazine. The gallery started in 2002 as a means of generating international attention for Athenian artists and has since evolved into a leading cultural voice with global influence. In spite of the city’s rich history, there are few other contemporary art galleries of The Breeder’s stature. The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), which opened in 2000, closed in 2003 and only opened its doors again in 2016.
Meanwhile, institutions such as the Benaki museums or The Museum of Cycladic Art frequently offer contemporary art exhibitions, yet their focus is mainly on exhibiting their vast historical and ancient collections – and rightly so. On the other side are initiatives – such as Neon – that take over spaces in Athens for different exhibitions. None has managed to sustain and build upon a forward-looking, dynamic program for as long as The Breeder, and certainly not as one gallery.