Founded in the 1980s, The Sotiris Felios Collection, based in Athens, is a unique collection of contemporary art focused on the human figure. The Collection belongs to “The other Arcadia” Foundation and offers a rich overview of the most important contemporary artists living and working in Greece, as well as leading artists whose creations forge a link between the past century and the present day.

The Sotiris Felios Collection has so far brought together over 1,400 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, reliefs, constructions and drawings by 140 artists, such as the painters Yannis Moralis, Chronis Botsoglou, Christos Bokoros, Giorgos Rorris, Stefanos Daskalakis, Tassos Mantzavinos, Alecos Levidis, Kalliopi Asargiotaki, Michalis Manoussakis, Kostas Papanikolaou, Maria Filopoulou, Edouard Sacaillan, Anna-Maria Tsakali, Dimitris Hantzopoulos, Tassos Missouras, Alexis Kyritsopoulos and Emmanouil Bitsakis, and the sculptors Takis, George Lappas, Pantelis Chandris, Vally Nomidou and Kostas Lales – to name but a few. In addition, its Library and Archives include over 3,000 artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, rare publications and periodicals, and extensive individual files.

With a collection as extensive and as eclectic as this one, it is almost impossible to pick out any of the artists and their works that comprise it over the others, let alone present any kind of indicative selection that does justice to the artists, individually and collectively.

In the interest of making the Collection accessible to the wider public, “The other Arcadia” Foundation has established a rich exhibition programme with the Collection’s works, both within and outside of Greece, producing the respective catalogues and liaising with other institutions to lend out works for various exhibitions. The Collection maintains an online digital archive of all the artworks belonging to the Collection, as well as the exhibitions and publications produced by “The other Arcadia” Foundation (felioscollection.gr).

In March 2021 “The other Arcadia” Foundation partnered with Google Arts & Culture to further its digital presence and scope, by bringing three hundred sixteen artworks and five online exhibits from The Sotiris Felios Collection to the worldwide audience of the digital platform.

In addition to “The other Arcadia” Foundation, the collector has created the art space ’16 Fokionos Negri’, Designed by acclaimed architects Maria Kokkinou and Andreas Kourkoulas, as a venue to host art exhibitions, organise cultural events and develop collaboration networks, partnerships and exchanges with other cultural organisations.

Furthermore, the Collection is committed to supporting the next generation of creatives. Its newly established “Residency Programme for Academic and Curatorial Research of Contemporary Greek Art” in collaboration with the British institution The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, for emerging curators and art historians, aims to create support channels for researchers who want to expand academic research around contemporary figurative art and its position within the international art scene. While its 5-year partnership with the Athens School of Fine Art offers once a year an opportunity for the School’s graduates to present their works in a group exhibition at the art space “16 Fokionos Negri”.