Greek artist takes ‘Dowry’ to textile biennale in Portugal

"Come on in. Let me show you my 'Dowry,'" artist Nikos Iosif quipped as he welcomed me into his workshop just a few months after hitting one of the most important milestones of his career. The "Dowry" he referred to was a series of textile art which he had been showing at a local gallery in his native Thessaloniki during the spring, when he learned that he had been selected from among 1,300 applicants for the Contextile - Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, which has been taking place in Guimaraes in Portugal since 2012.

During my tour of his workshop in the arty up-and-coming neighborhood of Dodeka Apostoloi in central Thessaloniki I noticed piles of colorful textiles, scraps of material and handwoven pieces that once decorated someone's home or sat in a young woman's dowry chest - the kindling that stokes Iosif's imagination and his textile collages.

No surprise then...