Charis Lales was born in Athens in 1952, into a family that had arrived thirty years earlier as part of the 1922 population exchange that displaced over a million Greeks from Anatolia. That history is not background to his work — it is the ground it stands on.

“The refugees have always helped power revolutions.”

He has spent fifty years making sculpture in a city remade several times over. At 74, he is the oldest person in GQ's 2026 Athens issue — photographed by Spyros Rennt in Loro Piana with his own hat, looking exactly like someone the city owes a debt to.

"For any refugee, even Greek-speaking, you'll face racism," he says. "It's very challenging for them to set up their life here. But the refugees have always helped power revolutions."

A short sentence that carries the full weight of modern Athens history. No website found, limited digital presence — Lales exists in the city rather than on it.