Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm

Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Opy Zouni (1941-2008)
Untitled, 1976
acrylic on wooden construction
75 x 82 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm














Untitled, 2025
photograph printed on Ilford fine art textured cotton rag
310 gsm mounted on aluminum
80 × 80 cm

For inquiries, please contact info@roma-gallery.com

  
 
 
About

Roma Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition C O S T I S – BLUE ALPHABET. Curated by the art historian Alia Tsagkari, the exhibition engages with the constitution of a new visual alphabet of structural forms. This alphabet is articulated through a series of photographic renderings of electrical discharges of lightning, which the artist generates in his studio by means of a printed electronic circuit of his own invention — a gesture of technological innovation that marks an epistemic rupture within the visual arts. In the framework of this pioneering process, the purely white explosion of lightning transubstantiates into deep blue auras through a concave Murano mirror. The electrical discharges are inscribed as rhizomatic forms and electrified extensions, configuring a singular semiotic system, a visual code that transcends the linearity of conventional writing.

Since 1989, the systematic investigation of the morphoplastic properties of lightning has constituted a central axis of Costis’ practice. In this trajectory, lightning is not treated as a mere natural phenomenon to be recorded, but rather as one produced by the artist himself, assuming a human dimension and directly linked to the sensorial encounter with the electric field—that is, with the very electrical nature of the cosmos. The first work of this series was Labyrinth or The Empty Monument (1989), a complex installation combining transparent mirrors, stone constructions, protest banners and an electronic lightning, which was presented at the Institut Français d’Athènes on the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution. This work constituted a multilayered commentary on life and death, presence and absence, while inaugurating Costis’ long-standing engagement with lightning as a primary instrument of artistic writing.

Reflecting on the exhibitory metamorphoses of lightning—from Labyrinth to the recent Blue Alphabet—the exhibition’s curator Alia Tsagkari observes: “Costis’ work responds to the demand formulated by the theorists of the 20th-century avant-garde for a new ‘writing of light’, by incorporating the contingency and the ephemeral temporality of electrical discharge into an extralinguistic code of communication. This rhizomatic code, part of a broader corpus of visual poetry, activates a fluid, multipolar and non-linear sensorial perception of both the lightning phenomenon and of writing itself.

The transmutation of energy into form, and subsequently into writing, is rendered possible through an act of global innovation: the printed electronic circuit conceived and realised by Costis, through which he generates electrical discharge. In this perspective, lightning becomes an ex-nihilo creation, inscribing electrical energy within the domain of art as a compact and consummate phenomenon. From this process emerges the electrified iconography of rhizomatic forms—the constitutive elements of a new, lightning-borne script; an authentic ‘writing of light’ which surpasses the traditional iconography of lightning and consolidates Costis’ singular alphabet.

The iconographic and technological significance of this contribution is highlighted by the inclusion of his works in institutional collections in Greece (National Museum of Contemporary Art and National Gallery) and abroad (Musée Electropolis, Mulhouse), where they coexist with works by artists such as Raoul Dufy, Man Ray, and Julio Le Parc. The international resonance of his work is further confirmed by his participation in exhibitions at key museums and institutions (e.g., Espace Electra, Paris), as well as by his theoretical recognition by distinguished critics, including Pierre Restany.

The exhibition C O S T I S – BLUE ALPHABET is accompanied by a slow-motion video of anthropogenic lightning, featuring original electronic music by Kostas Mantzoros, and a text booklet including contributions by art historian Jacques Donguy, Dr. Modern Greek Literature Morphia Malli, and art historian – curator Alia Tsagkari.

The exhibition is held under the auspices of the French Institute in Athens.

Press

Press Kit

Artist

C O S T I S (b. 1950, Athens)
Visual artist and poet. Studied in Athens and Paris. He stopped his studies at the level of Doctorat d’ Etat, under J.F. Lyotard. In 1969 his first collage is published and he has his first solo exhibition, showcasing lead sculptures. He is the editor of two literary and art magazines published in Athens, Lotus
(Λωτός, 1968-1972) and Praxis (Πράξη 1972). His first book of poetry is published in Athens in February 1974. Since 1970, he has been a regular contributor of essays, articles, poems, and drawings to many magazines. In 1975 his first Performance takes place at an art gallery in Athens. In 1976, using synthi100, he creates the music score of his film Saga of a city. The same year he starts creating mixed works of visual poetry. From 1986 onward, the lightning phenomenon is at the core of his research. A prolific artist, Costis has had 32 solo shows in galleries and museums in Europe and has participated in more than 100 international group shows. He is also engaged in a variety of projects and conferences / symposia on art, New Technologies, and poetry. Work by the artist is held in public museums and private collections, most notably in Greece, France, Belgium, and Germany.

Installation Shots