Juergen Teller Refactors Intimacy in Greek Retrospective

Auteur of celebrity and fashion photography redefinition, ex-husband of Sadie Coles, visionary collaborator with Marc Jacobs, Juergen Teller has become influential whilst maintaining a tight focus on his personal brand of candid photography. His artistry lies in the way he approaches all subjects with a method that requires the viewer to ‘find’ the aesthetic rather than be given beauty as a product. These ‘unstaged’ results might seem standard now but were revolutionary in the 1980s and 1990s context of glamorous tableau photography.

Teller’s casual photography belies a subtle compositional eye, framing his subjects within contexts that seem extensions of their character, finding the universal in the exceptional individual. It is noteworthy that he never diminishes the celebrity of his subject but deepens it, which explains why he continues to be successful decades into his career. As with his acclaimed 2023 Paris show i need to live, there is a sense he’s at a pivotal point in his life where he’s reevaluating what he’s done, perhaps looking back in order to move forward. By clearing the decks, he’s freed himself to find new ways of personal expression now that his innovations have become part of the standard language of his artform.

you are invited promises a strong show of greatest hits, insight into the development of this important photographer, and a view into how a master evolves their practice beyond their previous successes.

Show notes: Juergen Teller you are invited

The exhibition you are invited – the inaugural exhibition of the Onassis Foundation’s new Onassis Ready space in Athens – marks a significant moment in Juergen Teller’s artistic oeuvre, which has been shaped by landmark events and encounters. 

This mid-career survey presents various series, individual works, numerous videos, and combines Teller’s selections from previous exhibitions and portfolios, with new, unpublished images, from the 1990s to today, including iconic images (such as his portraits of Iggy Pop, Kate Moss and Charlotte Rampling), still-lifes and family portraits. This forthcoming solo exhibition encourages retrospection between past and present work, celebrating Teller’s re-energised perspective to form an active dialogue that acknowledges the shifting modes of exploration in his creative journey.

While Teller has always made personal work, this exhibition shows a new sense of purpose triggered by recent projects, such as photographing Pope Francis in a women’s prison during the 2024 Venice Biennale and his invitation to photograph Auschwitz for the 80th anniversary of its liberation earlier this year. In addition to such public commissions, in the past eight years, Teller has collaborated with his wife, Dovile Drizyte, on projects that reflect various aspects of their relationship and the birth of their daughter. These works are defined by a typical mixture of serious, intimate, yet often humorous characters created in the style of the grotesque.

These life-changing experiences have generated a deeper intensity regarding the way Teller responds to the world around him, forming profound connections and translating them into meaningful narratives. His resulting photographic and video works explore familial and universal stories of love, trust, hope, fertility, environment, politics and religion. Consequently, Teller’s heightened emotional bond with his subject matter embodies a positivity, spiritual awareness and renewed attitude to life.

you are invited will be presented in Athens, Greece, from 19 October to 30 December 2025, as part of the international opening of Onassis Ready, a new multidisciplinary space launched by Onassis Stegi, located in a restored factory in the city’s industrial zone. Designed to host experimental, boundary-pushing work and to serve as a platform for bold creative voices from around the world, Onassis Ready also hosts the Athens hub of Onassis ONX – an international program, also based in New York, that supports artists working with emerging technologies. With a dual focus on contemporary art and innovation, Onassis Ready launches its first major exhibition, as part of the 2025–2026 artistic program of Onassis Stegi, marking Juergen Teller’s most expansive solo presentation in Greece to date.

This collaboration between Juergen Teller and Onassis Stegi reflects a shared belief that art can be both intimate and political, raw and poetic, personal and collective. Through this partnership, you are invited opens up a space for dialogue between Teller’s emotionally charged universe and the contemporary realities of Greece, inviting a meaningful encounter between the local and the global.

Afroditi Panagiotakou, Artistic Director of Onassis Foundation comments: 

“This is where it begins.  We’re opening the doors of our new venue with an exhibition by Juergen Teller—an artist who reshapes the standards, whose work pulses with life —where the political clashes with the intimate, where raw, unfiltered emotion meets the quiet strength and vulnerability of family. Set on the edge of the city, Onassis Ready, is set to become a meeting place where stories simmer, boundaries blur and unexpected encounters emerge. Juergen Teller’s show will be more than an exhibition. It’s an invitation: to feel, to question, to belong.” 

Images courtesy of © Juergen Teller.  

Trebuchet Magazine

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle