Alia Tsagkari (b. 1996) was a BA in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Ioannina (Greece), then she completed her MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), where she specialised in modern and contemporary art and the postmodern interpretation of modernism. Currently, she is finishing her second MA in Art History and Theory at Athens School of Fine Arts. She has worked as an art-historian, scientific consultant, and curator. She is also the assistant project manager of the Gaïtis – Simossi Museum on Ios island. 

Her art-historical articles and short essays have been published at the Courtauldian and Thrausma magazines. In 2024, she curated the group exhibition ἅμαdeus, and two solo exhibition. In 2023, Tsagkari worked as a curator in the 6th Mykonos Biennale, titled Φ, Orphic Mysteries. In October 2022, she curated the group exhibition The October Show (IFAC Athina) with the participation of 45 Greek artists. In 2021 and 2022, she curated her first major group shows of renowned Greek artists on Tinos island (The Symbolics of Resistance and Catharsis: An Ecstatic Procession to Delos). She has participated in interdisciplinary and art-historical conferences, such as the CHASE Feminist Network Sharing Research & Practice Conference (London, 2020) and the Conference of young art history researchers: New trends and approaches in the history of art in Greece (Ioannina, 2022). 

In 2020, Tsagkari coined the term Urban Exoticism, which has been presented in lectures, workshops and exhibitions in Athens, Berlin and London in collaboration with established institutions, such as Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie. 

Her research interests include the history of aesthetic theories, art and documentary photography, relational aesthetics, international surrealism, the interconnections of surrealism with contemporary developments in psychoanalysis, ethnography and anthropology, and the postmodern critique of modernism.

Photo credit: Panos Lambrou