This year at the 2022 Gabby Awards, our honorees will receive special, handmade awards by acclaimed artist Alexandra Manousakis. True to our theme, Manousakis created and crafted these unique pottery pieces in her studio in Hania, on the island of Crete.
We’re honored to present these handmade treasures to our honorees, Niki Leondakis, John Varvatos and Amed Khan. Click here to read more about them.
In addition to her art, Manousakis also operates her namesake winery in the village of Vatolakos, outside Hania.
Artist’s statement about the awards:
Summers in Greece are legendary. For Greek Americans, summers in Greece are like a sort of coming-of-age to your ‘Greekness’. It doesn’t matter if you speak the language or not, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been before or are just dreaming of your first trip over; the imagery conjured is striking and deeply moving to Greek Americans.
For me, summers in Greece had a definite aesthetic that I could not get enough of. A handmade and authentic quality– whether we are talking about street signs, walls, ceramics , fabrics, cheese pies, Ion chocolates, hand cut french fries or trays of freshly cut watermelon.
Authentic Greece. Slow paced, made by hand but mostly a lot of love and care. I wanted to evoke this imagery and feeling with these awards and took from the overly plastered walls of the quaint village houses and the hand-painted signs you so often find all over the islands indicating a garden, a direction, or a local taverna.
Congratulations to these esteemed and accomplished winners who make us all proud of our Greek roots and ideals that they all espouse with their work.