ARTVILNIUS’17

ArtVilnius is the only contemporary art fair in Lithuania and the largest art fair in the Eastern Europe region. Over the last eight years the art fair has expanded and become firmly established on the local and international art scene, as well as on the list of must-visit events for art lovers. 

This is also confirmed by the statistics. Every year ArtVilnius has over 20,000 visitors, with about 60 art galleries from a dozen or so countries participating ((Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, the Netherlands, Russia, Italy, and France). The applications of galleries wishing to participate in the art fair are reviewed and selected by a jury made up of art critics and art market experts, thereby ensuring the professionalism of the galleries at the fair.

On 8–11 June The Rooster Gallery will take part at the international contemporary art fair ARTVILNIUS’17 and will present the newest works of six artists. The Rooster Gallery aims not only to represent the current trends of the young Lithuanian painting, but also to reflect the history of this art form and its various aspects. This time the gallery pays tribute to the traditional neutral white exhibition space, the so-called white cube. Established in Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York) in the 1930s, the white cube spread to museums and commercial galleries accross the world and, despite controversy and critique, has remained the dominant mode of display for almost a century. The exhibition structure reinterprets the concept of the white cube and pays attention to its ideology. But the most important is this abstract, decontextualized, visually clean and almost sacral space, which becomes an ideal place for the presentation and appreciation of the paintings.

The exhibition will represent the diversity of visual expression and reveal the conceptual approach to painting and its history, characteristic of the young generation of Lithuanian painters.

AUKSĖ MILIUKAITĖ layers fragments of historical paintings, contemporary art, popular culture and personal experience to create complex and absurd visual situations. In her works, she challenges the authority of an art creator, art institutions, and explores the mechanism of creative influences. A collage of her drawings and paintings, which accompanies the paintings, offers a glimpse into her creative process.

ADOMAS DANUSEVIČIUS‘ artworks combine the insights of gender theory, political and confrontational aims with intimacy and personal narratives. One of the first to start exploring the topic of masculinity in Lithuanian art, in his latest works Danusevičius analyzes it through the phenomenon of camp, which celebrates stylization, exaggeration, and mannerism. The artist uses the expression of camp to deconstruct the traditional images of masculinity and reveal their artificiality.

KRISTINA ALIŠAUSKAITĖ‘s works erase the boundary between the tangible and the imaginary, and balance in between cinematography, dream and reality. In her paintings, the human body loses its physicality and performs the functions of a sign or symbol. The painter employs it as an instrument to explore various aspects of human identity and psychology.

Painting itself and its physical body are at the core of ANDRIUS ZAKARAUSKAS‘ work. He focuses on the fundamental elements of painting – brushstrokes, colour, light and the surface of the canvas, making them a part of the narrative. The artist himself becomes a creator, an observer and an object at the same time. The topic of male and female relationship occasionally appear next to the main theme, enriching it with sensual and lyrical impulses.

EGLĖ KARPAVIČIŪTĖ explores the world of visual culture. The key motifs of her paintings are works of art, exhibition views, architectural objects and other cultural artefacts and phenomena. Repainting the works of other artists, she questions the concept of originality, the status of an artist and also addresses the topics of art presentation and its consumption.

The starting point of VITA OPOLSKYTĖ‘s creative pursuits is the interior. Her vintage-styled compositions combine fragments of real interiors and surrealist elements, ordinary and obscure objects, individual mythology and universal symbols, personal experience and collective memory. The painter explores the relation between reality and fiction and encourages us to doubt what is true and trust ephemeral visions.