Summary
- Maria Fragoudaki presents works in Athens inspired by photographs from Artemis II.
- The paintings connect Earth, the oceans and the message “No Blue, No Green”.
- Words and unusual materials play a central role.
- The exhibition at Roma Gallery runs until 14 November 2026.
Event Details
Earth as photographed by the Artemis II astronauts provides the starting point for Maria Fragoudaki’s new exhibition at Roma Gallery, bringing painting into conversation with the oceans, outer space and our responsibility towards the planet.
The solo exhibition, titled “You — Remember me. No Blue, No Green. Earth — Stand Free. Inspire. Care.”, runs in Athens from 15 October to 14 November 2026 and is curated by art historian Alia Tsagkari.
From Artemis II photographs to painting
In April 2026, photographs of Earth taken from Orion once again showed our planet as a small, luminous body against darkness. The first Earth photographs from Artemis II offered Fragoudaki a different starting point: to consider the planet from a distance, as a single vulnerable system rather than from its surface.
The connection to Apollo 8’s historic Earthrise and Apollo 17’s Blue Marble is deliberate. Those images also changed how we could perceive Earth’s boundaries. The exhibition includes a work titled Artemis II, in which circular bodies and fine orbital curves occupy an expansive blue field.
In The Earth Said, the phrase “MY ATTITUDE IS BASED ON HOW YOU TREAT ME” turns the planet into a speaker. Rather than simply looking at an environmental landscape, the visitor reads a direct statement addressed to the person standing before the painting.
Words, circles and a persistent “remember me”
Typography is integral to the visual composition. In YOU, the oversized white O reads both as a letter and as a planet. In Echo, “REMEMBER ME” repeats until it becomes a pattern, interrupted by a blue disc among the lines of text.
Remember me I and Remember me II develop that idea through blue circular forms and a pronounced contrast between light and dark areas. The painted surface is not a neutral backdrop for a slogan: colour and letter placement change how the words are read.
“No Blue, No Green”
Blue connects outer space with the ocean. The phrase “No Blue, No Green”, associated with oceanographer and marine biologist Sylvia Earle, expresses the dependence of life on land upon healthy seas. Fragoudaki takes it into paintings incorporating dry pigment, fragmented gypsum and found glass from the Greek island of Leros, among other materials.
In Equilibrium, blue and green are divided by a narrow luminous line. It is a particularly restrained image of the relationship running through the exhibition: two different environments that cannot be understood in isolation.
In Care, the word CARE sits within a gold disc; in Earth Care, the letters emerge faintly from the blue itself. The approaches differ in visual intensity, but both encourage viewers to spend longer looking before the message becomes fully apparent.
Freedom and experimentation with materials
The artist works beyond oil and acrylic paint. Feathers, plaster, collage and gold leaf introduce different textures, reflections and relief. In Freedom and Earth Freedom, feathers give physical presence to a word usually approached as an abstraction.
This attention to materials also connects to Fragoudaki’s background in chemistry. Across her practice, the behaviour of surfaces, light absorption and the transformation of matter matter as much as the finished form.
The artist and the exhibition in Athens
Born in 1983, Maria Fragoudaki lives and works in Athens. Her practice spans painting, sculpture, installation and performance. She has exhibited in Europe, the United States and Japan, including the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London. She studied chemistry and Drug Discovery Skills at King’s College London.
The exhibition is at Roma Gallery, 5 Roma Street, Athens, until Saturday 14 November 2026. Opening hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 11:00–20:00, and Wednesday and Saturday, 11:00–16:00; the gallery is closed on Mondays and Sundays. The opening took place on 15 October.
What we think
There is something compelling about photographs becoming the beginning of a completely different work rather than the final product of a mission. Artemis II images were made to show what the astronauts saw; here, they become an invitation to look again at Earth and our place within it.
For image-makers, the repeated use of blue, the circle and a small vocabulary of words is especially engaging. Equilibrium holds your attention through two fields of colour, while YOU stops you with a single oversized white O. An artwork need not shout to make someone think.
We also appreciate that the environmental theme is not reduced to an image of catastrophe. Instead, the work asks for attention: how long will we look, what will we notice on a surface, and how will we understand the connection between water, the planet and everyday life? Photography has a place in that conversation too.
