About us

On the 22nd of December 1945, while the civil was about to burst out, a ship named MATAROA, sailed from the port of Piraeus heading towards France. It was about to realize a transfer that would get to be engraved in the collective unconscious. It was going to transfer two hundred, unknown at the time, artists and intellectuals, rescuing an important part of modern Greek cultural heritage. 

Today at Mataroa Gallery, after departing in December 2020, we envision an analogous metaphor. We focus on stimuli, which -like electricity- overcome the stagnation of metamodernism and are materialized in works of art that manage to get away and to rescue the modern scripture of an authentic creation.

It is worth noting that in the Maori language mataroa means a woman’s deep penetrating look. In a way, Mataroa Gallery performs this second aspect of its mission: to insist, with eyes wide open and a penetrating look, in searching for works and artists that continue to give their mark today, shaping the cultural narrative of tomorrow.

Nikos Papadopoulos is the founder and curator of Mataroa Gallery. He studied Political Science and Philosophy in Paris and worked as an editor and translator of essays and literary texts. He thinks that a real work of art is on its own merits a machine ready to explode. So, he envisions the creation of a lever that will cultivate and promote an affection that only art can guarantee in the midst of modern reality.