Ilias Sipsas was born in Athens (1981).
Ilias Sipsas works across photography, sculpture and installation, using found photographs, objects and moving images as a starting point for material and spatial transformations. Through acts of cutting, rearranging and reconstruction, he disrupts the original coherence of images and objects, allowing new visual and physical relationships to emerge.
Rooted in darkroom experimentation, his practice examines photography not simply as a means of representation but as a material structure that can be fragmented, expanded and reconfigured in space. Working between intention and chance, his installations explore the shifting boundaries between image and object, memory and matter, photography and sculpture.
He studied Sculpture, Multimedia and Scenography at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2008–2016), Marble Craftsmanship at the Preparatory and Vocational School of Fine Arts of Panormos, Tinos (2005–2008), and Furniture Design at a Public Vocational Institute (IEK) in Athens (1999–2001).
Self-taught in photography and darkroom practice since 2003, he has participated in exhibitions, performances and artist residencies in Greece and abroad since 2007.
Lives and works in Athens.
Solo exhibition:
2020 - "Terra Lumina", Ekfrasi Gallery, Athens
Group exhibitions:
2026 - "Relational Fields", Fotogalerie, Vienna, Austria
2024 - "C' est ma place", Pont gallery, Athens
2023 - "Syzygy"/Solid light and timeless motion, Momus- Alex Mylona museum, Athens
2023 - "Karga", Ekfrasi gallery, Athens
2022 - "Rebetiko", Centre of the Arts, Municipal galery, Athens.
2021 - "Thinking again, what I've realized yesterday, I've dream it earlier", Minu, Athens
2021 - "Syzygy"/Spatial cuts and merging orbits" , Nykyaika gallery, Tampere, Finland
2020 - "Pareidolia", Talc Studio, Athens
2020 - "Overmorrow", Ekfrasi gallery, Athens
2019 - "Selective Affinities", Ekfrasi Gallery, Athens
2019 - "Rarities", Fotagogos, Athens
2018 - "Shadows of Outskirts", Cultural House Laikku, Tampere, Finland
2017 - "Face to Phase", School of Fine Arts, Athens
2017 - "Art Athina", Athens International Art Fair / Ekfrasi gallery
2017 - "Tidal Flow Revisited", municipal gallery of Piraeus, Athens
2017 - "LappasAward-Miners", exhibition in Gazi, Athens
2016 - "Tidal Flow", Aqua Pro marine services, Moschato, Athens.
2016 - "Corpus isola", Elementary school of Pothia, Kalymnos
2015 - “Magic Carpet Ride”, Ekfrasi gallery, Athens
2015 - “The Eye & The Finger”, CartabiancaArles, Arles
2014 - “The Poetics of Chios”, Ottoman baths, Chios
2014 - “10th Athens video art festival”, Athens
2014 - “The City from Acropolis”,Ekfrasi gallery, Athens.
2013 - “Portraits Through the Lens”, cultural space “kleftes”, Athens
2011 - “The Great Candy”, the Greek film archive, Athens
2011 - “Leaders, animals & tools”, Kappatos gallery, Athens
2011 - “Visual Poetry”, Kakogianis foundation, Athens
2010 - “2nd Moving Frames Festival”, Geni Tzami, Mitilene
2010 - “Clean Art”, Former municipal slaughterhouse of Tavros, Athens
2009 - “Why Cinema Now?”, 50th Thessaloniki Film festival/Cultural foundation of NBG
2009 - “1st Moving Frames Festival”, Ermou str, Mitilene, Lesvos
2008 - “Traces”, Cultural foundation of Tinos, Tinos
2007 - “Work-order-zero”, Headquarters of AKTOR Constructive Company, Athens
Residencies:
2016 - "LappasAwardMiners" Artist in Residency, Fokida, Greece
2017 - "7th International Youth Metal Sculpture Symposium", Taiyuan, China
Scholarship:
2012 - "Erasmus exchange program", ArtEZ Academy of the Arts, Zwolle, Netherlands
Musical Performances:
2017 - “Petra Luna // The Dome" (live), Athens International Art Fair, Faliro/Athens
2017 - “Petra Luna // The Yard" (live), The symptom project, Amfissa
2017 - “Petra Luna // The Tree" (live), Sto Sxoleio, Kolonos/Athens
2022 - “Petra Luna // Hommage to Kornelios Grammenos (1959-2021)", on the closing day of his retrospective exhibition "Prosodies and Rhapsodies" at Alex Mylona Museum, Athens