Hot Wheels Athens London is a contemporary art gallery established by Hugo Wheeler and Julia Gardener out of a neoclassical Athenian apartment. Its activities took shape through dialogue with artists and curators who were active in the city post-2017 (documenta 14), presenting exhibitions that center on critical, conceptual practices from Southeastern Europe and the Balkan region alongside resonant international positions. The gallery currently represents seven artists, all of whom maintain a multidisciplinary output outside of their visual arts practice, making active contributions towards curation, publishing, writing, music, design, fashion, or film. As of November 2023, Hot Wheels expanded to a second gallery in central London, recomposing its operations to champion local and new positions in a major art center in parallel with continuing its dedication to running a robust programme in Athens.

Recent shows at Hot Wheels Athens include “Sem Lala, Private Collection and Jeff Wall Production” a group exhibition including the works of artists Sem Lala, Kyriakos Kyriakides and Pierre Bal-Blanc, as well as solo exhibitions by Maria Tomazou and Anastasia Pavlou.

The event is part of an online lecture series of the class Florian Pumhösl, co-organised by Simon Lässig and Vera Lutz. The series aims to look at Athens as a model for how collaborations between artists, galleries and artist-run spaces can generate their very own institutional infrastructure and dicourse. The event is open to the public, will be held in English and can be accessed through the following link.