Archive

KINGDOM

MÁRTA RADICS The exhibition displays attributes of an imaginary kingdom. The blurred fortresses, crowns and gates show the clouds and waves of water that are riding over the kingdom… The ruins of this ancient world have a profound effect on me, and they send humankind back through ages with their dignified balance. The ruins of the past surround our everyday life and radiate perfection in their own inadequacy. The elements in this space have such an effect on us that they help us remember, either consciously or subconsciously. Remembrance often appears in the form of a mood and feeling. The weather-stricken elements of rocks, castles and columns can start a story that can create a relationship between soul and substance.

EXHIBITION OF VIII INTERNATIONAL LATGALE GRAPHIC SYMPOSIUM

The eighth iteration of the International Latgale Graphic Art Symposium in Daugavpils has brought together eight participants who, in their own individual ways, all continue the rich traditions of past generation of graphic artists. Now the outcomes of two packed weeks of creative work are presented to the public. The graphic art symposium has proved its sustainability and relevance in the global community of graphic art. It can certainly be called a successful and valuable graphic art tradition in Latgale region. The symposium has provided a fertile ground for discussion and creative work in the cultural space of Latgale region by bringing together Latvian and international artists who have similarities and differences in the way they conceptualise and approach graphic art. These conditions have enabled a unique form of dialogue which does not require verbal speech, but rests on transfer and comparison of technical nuances and individual growth.

SOLARIS

Prof. Dr. Remigijus Venckus Exhibition: 18.05.2019 ‘Solaris’ is an art exhibition of a well-known Lithuanian media artist Prof. Ph. D. Remigijus Venckus. The exhibition will be opened at 7 p.m. at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre.  Idea: On the Solaris Ocean. Lately I have not had much time for reading fiction, but I am actually missing the period of bookworming, which happened in my life some years ago. Thus, in the summer of 2017, I went back to my already forgotten reading activities. I spent half of my vacation near some Lithuanian lakes with a few interesting books, having nothing to do in my academic life. While there, I read ‘Solaris’ (1961), one of the most memorable Sci-Fi books ever written. The author of this impressive masterpiece was Stanislaw Lem, Polish intellectual and philosopher, winner of multiple international awards. I had never read anything by him before, but I had seen some films based on his books.

The exhibition “ ILLUSION OF TENDERNESS” from the painting collection of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre.

The once dominant view of the female nature as inherently tender, delicate and docile is now increasingly contested as subjective and delusional, rooted in man-made myth rather than objective reality. The present-day image of a modern female is deeply dissonant with past conceptions as it incorporates new qualities, perspectives and features. And yet, is tenderness really a mere illusion?

UGUNĪ

Ovidiu Leuce, Delia Maxim, Pınar Baklan Önal                                       UGUNĪ, the concluding exhibition of the residency programme by Latvian Centre of Contemporary Ceramics, is held in cooperation with Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre. It is a joint project by three young ceramic artists who, for an entire month, worked side by side in Ceramic Laboratory in Daugavpils Fortress. A residency is a very special time and space where artists can be free from daily cares and worries, liberated from the trivia of organising their day-to-day lives. Instead, they are able to immerse themselves fully into creative processes, develop their skills and experiment with materials. It is a time for research, which often yields unexpected results that even the artist could not have hoped for.

Play of light and dark

Inta Celmiņa, Edvards Grūbe Painting will exist as long as light itself – colour and shape can appear in the most incredible ways, either through the artist’s conscious effort and intention or as unexpected twists of the endless game of themes, techniques and compositional arrangements. The title chosen by artists Inta Celmiņa and Edvards Grūbe for their joint exhibition project at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, at first glance, can seem frivolous and lacking proper gravitas. And yet, if we take care not to downplay the meaning of game to its narrowest sense and imagine our lives as journeys of perception, we cannot help but admit that we are all players in a universal game, so why not apply this term to artistic processes? The outcome of this game is known only to the players involved, but we see their artwork that has value in its own right inasmuch as it reveals the lived experience of each artist, things either specific to their backgrounds or common to all.

Oļgerts Krauklis. Architecture in Painting

Being versatile and achieving success in different roles is something not many can accomplish. Architect and painter Oļģerts Krauklis is among the few who stand out. Perhaps due to having been blessed with extra talents and gifts that have helped him achieve many things, maintain a broad and open worldview in the most diverse spheres of activity, retain a sense of humour, remember a wealth of events and facts and be able to reshape the strands of these experiences into unique urban and rural landscapes that delight the eye with astonishing precision of aerial and linear perspectives.

Moments

This exhibition is a remarkably vibrant kaleidoscope of moments frozen in time, happy and unrepeatable bursts of creative output by an brilliant master of watercolour painting. Embodied in exquisitely charming and professionally executed works, these moments allow touching a truly unique phenomenon in the history of Vitebsk watercolour school. Exaggerations aside, Alexander Karpan (1953-2016) is its great success and pride, one of the most talented Belarusian watercolour painters of the late 20th – early 21st century. And the artist’s body of work is a wonderful case in point to this argument.

Wang Shaojun. Internal Uniformity

Fundamental changes occurred to the context of the entire Chinese contemporary art over the past few decades, among which the most austere change comes from the surging western art concepts and styles, stimulating the transformation of Chinese art into creative ideas and methods and providing possible orientations for art-related thinking and creative practices. Wang Shaojun’s refinements of language in art keep everything well joined up and heading towards the internal, so that the constantly deepening thoughts and practices lead to his personalized artistic style as they merge into his artistic character.

Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty

The truth (in Latin “veritas”) is the correspondence between a proposition and the reality to which this proposition refers. However, this definition of truth is not the only one, there are many definitions of the word and many classical controversies around the various theories of truth. “Truth” involves both the quality of “faithfulness, fidelity, loyalty, sincerity, veracity”, and that of “agreement with fact or reality”. In a general sense, it stands against falsehood.