Reviews | "you are invited" by Juergen Teller

“Realistic yet poetic, provocative yet emotional, humorous yet political, the works of the acclaimed German photographer Juergen Teller form deeply meaningful narratives about his life, his experiences, and the human relationships that shaped him.”

– ertnews.gr

“His lens is defined by honesty. A rawness that does not avert the gaze, but instead invites it to focus on his shots. On his vivid images.”

– Nikos Kontomitros, Madame Figaro

“Teller does not ask you to look at him; he almost dares you to judge him, and from the moment you do, you are ensnared. Because you realise that you are not simply seeing an artist exposing his body, but a person exposing his image before it is shaped by fame. And this, in an era in which our image is always curated, quietly makes you pause.”

– Georgia Oikonomou, News247

“You have been invited to enter my mind, the process of my work, the things that concern me. To what surrounds me, to what interests and inspires me, and to what I do. And you are invited to be alive, to be positive.”

– Juergen Teller, interviewed by Mia Kollia, News247

“I am inspired by life and by situations I encounter. I think about them, I re-enact them, and from them my work is born. Sometimes you don’t know exactly what you want to do in a given moment, and then you need to think and have the confidence to let life happen.”

– Juergen Teller, interviewed by Katerina Anesti, iefimerida

“It doesn’t bother me at all if someone doesn’t like my work. After all, it’s impossible for everyone to understand it. If everyone understood my art, it would be mediocre.”

– Juergen Teller, interviewed by Panagiotis Koustas, “Kathimerini” newspaper (Arts)

“His photographs hang on the walls without captions, because, as he believes, everything should remain open to people’s imagination—for them to discover on their own. The presentation is entirely handmade: most works are unframed, and it’s evident that he pays close attention to every element of the space itself—fire extinguishers, switches, sockets.”

– Katerina Parri, Elculture.com

“[Teller’s] photographs, often oscillating between the sacred and the absurd, explore the everyday as a site of revelation. They include portraits of his partner and their daughter, moments of domestic vulnerability, and encounters that test the boundaries between art, life, and belief. At its core, the show is what Teller describes as ‘a positive invitation—to look, to feel, to think, to dream.’”

– Thomai Tsimpou, Designboom

“This exhibition reveals a more self-aware Teller—one who translates his personal journey into broader reflections on love, trust, spirituality, environmental crisis, and religion. The result is a powerful interplay of contrasting tones: tenderness and sarcasm, vulnerability and social critique.”

– MUSE Magazine

“The new Athens is not the ancient Athens. Gone are the whispers of marble gods and their sun-scorched ruins. Instead, in Agios Ioannis Rentis—a former plastics factory now polished into something raw, muscular, and gleaming—we find Onassis Ready: the newest cultural playground where the industrial collides with the poetic.”

“His camera doesn’t simply capture—it interrogates. The result is a gallery of images that ask, ‘What do you fear?’ and in the same breath, ‘What do you desire?’”

– Emily Phillips, 10 magazine

“The exhibition reaffirms Teller’s reputation as one of photography’s most fearless voices, while highlighting the Onassis Foundation’s commitment to supporting creative risk and artistic dialogue. Teller’s images—at once raw, poetic, and deeply human—transform personal experience into universal reflection.”

– hube

“Unfiltered, tender, and defiantly honest, Juergen Teller has long dissolved the borders between fashion, art, and life.”

– Art is Alive

“A show that collapses fashion, art, and life into one frame—less nostalgia, more now. Teller’s photographs remain brazenly human: funny, tender, occasionally confrontational, and always alive.”

– TheMonoMod

“While his photographs have always carried a sense of the personal, ‘you are invited’ heightens that intimacy. In recent years, Teller has turned the camera inward—most notably through collaborations with his wife, Dovile Drizyte—creating work that merges the performative and domestic, the tender and grotesque, calling on questions of time, evolution and what it means to be an artist in-flux.”

– Hypebeast

“‘you are invited’ revels in Teller’s own child-like curiosity for the world around him and the fashion photographer’s ability to look at fashion straight on and say ‘this is all so silly, let's just have some fun.’”

- Showstudio

“The Athens show is a big sweep—across time, geography, and the generations. It’s emotional, too, and marks a coming of age—if that’s even possible at 61.”

– Samantha Conti, WWD