Phainó is a space for slow, thoughtful making — where ceramics, print, photography, and sculptural forms come together through a process rooted in intuition, experimentation and care. Each piece begins as a response to material, space, and image, and becomes something to be held, seen, and lived with. Whether shaped from clay, pulled through ink, or captured in light, the work invites close attention and quiet reflection.

Why Phainó

Pronounced: fye-no

The name Phainó comes from the Greek phainesthai, meaning to show or to come into view. It reflects an ongoing interest in perception — how we interpret what we see, and how materials, forms and images shape our sense of reality. This idea is central to the work, and draws from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which questions the gap between appearance and truth.

The name also speaks to a personal connection. Time spent living and working in Athens left a lasting impression on the work — from the vast museum collections of ancient ceramics and ruins, to the city’s layered architecture, language and contemporary art scene. These experiences continue to shape both the visual and conceptual aspects of the practice, grounding it in a place where past and present, myth and material, constantly overlap.

Much like the shadows on the cave wall, the prints and ceramics made under Phainó often ask the viewer to look again — to notice what shifts in light, surface or context. Phainó celebrates both the seen and the sensed: the trace of touch, the tension between image and object, the quiet transformation of raw material into something new.