“PANCHITO & MAXSI,” VIVIAN SUTER'S WORK IN ATHENS
Under the exhibition design by Japanese architect Hiroyuki Kimura, the Melas Martinos Gallery showcases the work of Vivian Suter—an artist who works with Guatemala’s natural elements—across two floors.
Melas Martinos announced the upcoming solo exhibition of Vivian Suter (*1949 in Buenos Aires, Argentina), Panchito & Maxsi, opening on September 30, 2026. The show brings together approximately 60 works spanning across different decades of the artist’s practice in Panajachel, Guatemala, where she has lived and worked since the early 1980s.
After notable initial success following her graduation at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel in 1972, Suter decided to settle in Guatemala in 1981, which led to a prolonged period outside of the spotlight. With her participation at documenta 14 in Kassel in 2017, her work again attracted worldwide attention.
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Elisabeth Wild, Untitled, 2017. Collage on paper, 26 x 22 cm
Her painterly oeuvre has reflected a close interplay between art and nature, especially after two hurricanes flooded her studio in 2005 and 2010. These events represent a turning point as they fundamentally and lastingly changed the artist's understanding of authorship and the creative process. Instead of cleaning and restoring the damaged canvases, Suter decided to embrace the conditions of her environment and started using nature as an active collaborator in her practice.
She deliberately exposes the canvases to the elements, plants, and animals on a daily basis. Persistent experimentation and the incorporation of decay and destruction became important components of Vivian Suter’s work, accentuating how she views painting: vulnerable, subject to constant transformation, unstable and perishable.
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1. Elisabeth Wild, Untitled, 2017. Collage on paper, 26 x 22 cm
Throughout her career, Suter has continued to investigate the possibilities of her medium, breaking down the concept of the canvas as a self-contained space, and exploring how painting can reach beyond the traditional frame in unconventional ways.
The exhibition design at Melas Martinos, realized by Japanese architect Kimura Hiroyuki, presents the paintings as suspended and layered elements across the two floors of the gallery space, allowing the viewer to walk among and around them.
A selection of small-scale collage works by Elisabeth Wild (1922–2020), the artist’s mother, will also be presented as part of the exhibition.
Vivian Suter: Panchito & Maxsi will be on display through 30 September 2026 – 16 January 2027 at Melas Martinos, Pandrossou 50, 10555 Athens, Greece.
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