HORSES, 1982
engraved stone
120 x 155 cm
3/12

TURNING INWARD, 1966
Engraved stone
107 x 75,5 cm
EA (Épreuve d'artiste)

ATTACK I, 1985
Engraved stone
200 x 146 cm
5/8

VISIT I, 1979
Engraved stone
107 x 76 cm
13/20

VISIT ΙΙ, 1979
Engraved stone
107 x 76 cm
14/20

VISIT ΙΙΙ, 1979
Engraved stone
105 x 75 cm
8/20

SUN AND IRON, 1979
engraved stone
75 x 105 cm
7/12

SITUATION I, 1970
Engraved stone
120 x 67 cm
10/12

SITUATION ΙΙ, 1970
engraved stone
170 x 76 cm
9/12

METAPOLITEUSI, 1974
Engraved stone
105 x 75 cm
5/10

MATERNITY, 1965
Engraved stone
107 x 76 cm
19/20

UNTITLED II, 1987
Engraved stone
105 x 75 cm
12/20

UNTITLED VII,
Engraved stone
76 x 106,5 cm
EA (Épreuve d'artiste)

THREAT ΙΙ, 1987
Engraved stone
120 x 80 cm
19/20

FOREST, 1972
Engraved stone
160 x 113 cm
6/8

RURAL, 1974
Engraved stone
76,5 x 107 cm
1/8

CROSS EXAMINATION, 1972
Engraved stone
140 x 107 cm
7/12

EXPECTANCY I, 1972
engraved stone
105 x 75 cm
13/20

THREAT, 1986
Engraved stone
75 x 105,5 cm
10/20

THE LONELINESS OF ANTIGONE, 1977
Engraved stone
106,5 x 76 cm
9/20

MADONNA WITH DOLPHIN, 1970-80
Engraved stone
137,5 x 75,5 cm
EA Ι (Épreuve d’ artiste)

YOUNG WOMAN WITH CHILD, 1979
Engraved stone
151,5 x 53,5 cm
5/9

MEMORY I - POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL, 1986
Engraved stone
320 x 120 cm
3/12

ANTIGONE’S DUTY, 1974
engraved stone
125 x 107 cm
7/12

LANDSCAPE, 1977
engraved stone
76 x 106,5 cm
2/8

UNTITLED V, 1972
Engraved stone
106,5 x 78,5 cm
EA (Épreuve d’artiste)

UNTITLED VI, 1970
engraved stone
90 x 58 cm
1/20

UNTITLED VI, 1970
Engraved stone
90 x 58 cm
1/20

PEGASI, 1985
Engraved stone
119 x 234,5 cm
5/6

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About

The Roma Gallery is honoured to present the exhibition Vaso Katraki: Hurtful Bodies, curated by Alia Tsagkari and dedicated to the late work of the eminent Greek engraver. Through a selection of engraved stones, works on paper created by her unique technique, the exhibition highlights Katraki’s rendering of the human body as a thematic, symbolic, and political field. Her compositions, distinguished by their robust, elongated figures and Doric simplicity, articulate a bold reflection on historical time, the human condition, and the body as a bearer of collective memory and consciousness.

Katraki’s Body-Centric Visual Language

In her later works, the human body is not merely a subject of representation but emerges as an ideological and formal field that redefines the anthropomorphic myth. Her figures, stripped of descriptive or decorative details, attain an archetypal presence, embedded within an unbroken spatial core where depth does not function as a void but as an organic continuation of matter. The latter, a fundamental element in Katraki’s practice, is not a passive substrate for engraving but is instead integrated into the genealogy of form, yielding to the imperatives of visual expression. Within this framework, stone—specifically sandstone—is engraved with firm, expansive gestures, transferring onto cotton paper forms that oscillate between sculptural solidity and painterly inscription.

The corporeality of these stone engravings embodies the hurtful state of human existence, positioned at the threshold between the rigidity of death and the tension of being. Katraki’s anthropocentric visual language does not seek rhetorical embellishment; rather, it foregrounds rough, fragmented bodies that transcend the individual and inscribe themselves into collective memory.

The Political Dimension of the Body

In the late works of Katraki, the human body assumes a distinct political weight. In the renowned Situation series, the mutilated body engages in dialogue with barbed wire, in a stark visual mediation of violence and confinement. The figures, entrapped within an oppressive space, rupture the viewer’s gaze, subverting the state-sanctioned rhetoric of “cleansing” imposed by the Greek Military Junta. Here, bodily distortion is neither an experiment in modernist formalism nor an exercise in fragmentation, but rather a visceral necessity.

Animal and Human: The Animistic Relationship of Form

Katraki’s subject matter extends beyond the human figure to include animal forms, adopting an animistic approach that explores the self-referential nature of existence. Horses, with their robust, accentuated curves and forceful engravings, maintain an archaic rigidity. The way they are inscribed onto the surface of the stone underscores corporeality as a catalytic force that extends beyond human experience.

Form and Space: The Inscription of Matter

In Katraki’s work, space is not a neutral background that accommodates forms; rather, it functions as an integral component of composition, amplifying the power of her work. The empty depth is not treated as absence but as a vital plane in which form attains its full presence. Through the technique of sandstone engraving, the artist embeds materiality into her visual narrative, transforming the act of incision into a dialectical process between matter and corporeal representation.

Press

Press Kit

Artist

Vaso Katraki was born in 1914 in Aitoliko, a small fishing town by the Messolonghi lagoon.She studied painting and engraving at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1936-1940) under the tutelage of Kostis Parthenis and Yannis Kefallinos, respectively. She specialized in wood engraving, copper engraving, lithography, and typography. She graduated with a scholarship, an award, and two distinctions in engraving. With the outbreak of the war, the ASFA’s Engraving Workshop actively participated in the effort to boost morale by creating posters, among which Katraki’s Woman Knitting was selected. In 1947, she participated in the International Cairo Exhibition (Cairo) and Grekisk Konst (Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm). In 1949, she became a founding member of the artistic “Stathmi” and exhibited at Zappeion (1950). In 1952, she showcased her wood engravings and woodcuts at the Panhellenic Exhibition at Zappeion (Athens). This was followed by the exhibitions Mostra di Pittura Hellenica Contemporanea (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome, 1953) and the exhibition of Greek engravers (Geneva, 1954). In 1955, she began working with sandstone and participated in the exhibitions La Grèce Vivante (Museum of Art and History, Geneva, 1955) and Nutida Grekisk Konst (Gothenburg, 1955).
In 1955, she held her first solo exhibition at the “Zachariou” gallery (Athens). This was followed by the International Woodcut Exhibition “Xylon” (Zurich & Ljubljana, 1956), the São Paulo Biennial (1957), and the Biennale of Mediterranean Countries (Alexandria, 1957), where she was awarded the first prize for engraving in 1958. That same year, she received the first prize at the International Exhibition of Drawing and Printmaking “Bianco e Nero” at Lugano (1958). In 1959, she exhibited at the “Zygos” gallery (Athens), and participated in the Greek Engraving Exhibition (Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 1959). From 1960, she regularly participated in the Tokyo Engraving Biennale. She took part in exhibitions such as Greek Art (Bucharest, 1962) and Peace and Life (gallery “Zygos”, Athens, 1962). From 1963, horses became a central theme in her work. In 1964, she held a solo exhibition in Beijing and participated in the group exhibitions Greek Art (Buenos Aires) and Greek and American Engraving (Hellenic-American Union, Athens). In 1966, she was honoured with the international “Tamarind” lithography award at the Venice Biennale, while in 1967 she exhibited at the Athens Art Gallery – Hilton and the Greek Art exhibition (Montreal). Following the imposition of the dictatorship, she was arrested and exiled (1967-68). Upon her return from exile, she exhibited at the “Argo” gallery (Nicosia, 1971), the Capri Biennale of Engraving (1969), the Athens Art Gallery – Hilton (1971), the galleries “Nees Morfes” (1972) and “Ora” (1973), and the Greek Art Exhibition (Madrid, 1972). In 1976, she received the first prize at the Intergrafik International Exhibition of Graphic Arts (East Germany), and participated in exhibitions at the Museum am Ostwall (Dortmund), the galleries “Argo” and “Polyplano” (Athens), and the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art (Basel). In 1977, she took part in the exhibitions Greek Engraving (gallery “Nees Morfes”, Athens), Balkan Painting (Bucharest), and Systowa Wisproczesner Sztuki Greckies (Warsaw). In 1978, she participated at the exhibition Modern Greek Painters and Engravers (Nicosia), and presented works at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Art (Basel) with the “Polyplano” gallery and at the Paul Facchetti gallery (Paris). In 1979, she participated in the Baden-Baden Biennale and the Contemporary Greek Painters and Print Makers exhibition (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin). On February 20, 1980, the National Gallery and Alexander Soutzos Museum inaugurated the major retrospective exhibition Vaso Katraki. Engravings, 1940-1980, which honoured her work. Throughout that decade, Katraki’s presence in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad continued unabated. In 1982, she participated in Europalia (Brussels), the exhibition Glances at Greece (Athens Art Gallery), and the Engraving Exhibition of 49 Greek Artists (Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens). In 1983, she presented at Modern Greek Prints (London). In 1984, she held a solo exhibition at the “Aixoni” gallery and designed an original composition for a stamp for the Greek Post commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. In 1985, the engraver participated in Memories – Reconfigurations – Searches (Athens Conservatory) and in 1986 she presented the Elegies series at the “Athina” gallery. In 1987, she co-founded the Association of Greek Engravers and presented works at the exhibitions Engravings in the War, the Occupation and the Resistance (“Hyakinthos” gallery), The Workshop of Kefallinos (“Pleiades”gallery), Peace (Greek Committee for International Peace), Panhellenic Exhibition (Piraeus Port Organization), Works–Events (Kostis Palamas Building, University of Athens). She also created a poster for the “5th Human Shield of Peace around the Acropolis”. In 1988, she participated in the exhibitions Greek Post-War Engraving (National Gallery), Wspotczesna Graffika Grecko (National Museum, Warsaw), and the First Mediterranean Biennale of Engraving (Mirabello, Crete) etc.

On December 27, 1988, Katraki passed away at the age of 74.

Installation Shots