Greek art today is increasingly defined by a conversation between what has been inherited and what is yet to be imagined. Across Athens and beyond, a new generation of artists is returning to materials and techniques deeply connected to Greek culture, but approaching them with a distinctly contemporary sensibility. Maria Economides belongs to this new landscape. Working from her Athens studio, she creates hand-built ceramic vessels using techniques including coiling, pinching and slab building.
Her forms often hover between object and sculpture, while the vessel becomes a metaphor for the human body and a container of emotion and memory.
Economides' work also illustrates how contemporary Greek artists can engage with the past without simply reproducing it.
Her interest in ancient ceramic traditions is filtered through personal experience, experimentation and an instinctive approach to form. The result is work that feels connected to Greece's long material history, yet unmistakably of the present.
''My practice is centered around the vessel — one of the oldest and most familiar forms, yet one that continues to hold endless possibilities.
I build my pieces slowly by hand, primarily through coiling and pinching, allowing the process, the pressure of my hands and the nature of the clay to guide the final form.
I am deeply inspired by ancient Greek vessels and their simplicity, permanence and connection to everyday life. I explore what the vessel can represent today: a quiet body, a container of emotions, memories and traces of time.
My journey with clay developed gradually, shaped by years of living abroad and eventually returning to Greece and establishing my practice in Athens.
Material and experimentation remain central to my work, particularly my ongoing exploration of terra sigillata, coloured clays and high firing.
I am interested in the balance between control and imperfection — in allowing clay to retain evidence of touch, pressure and transformation.
Ultimately, my work is about memory, time and our instinct to make, hold and preserve. In a world that is constantly changing, I find something deeply meaningful in creating objects that can remain.''
