GEO: contemporary painting in Rīga Art Space
From 5 June through 25 July, Rīga Art Space (3 Kungu Street, Rīga) hosts a new exhibition project, GEO, featuring contemporary paintings from the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre collection.
*Geometry – a branch of mathematics that studies the spatial shapes and properties of things.
*Geography – a system of natural and social sciences that studies the territorial complexities of nature and human production efforts, and their components.
Whilst opportunities to cross geographical borders and experience in-person encounters with international art continue to be curtailed, this exhibition project is put forward as a creative take on the present-day reality through the lens of two interrelated concepts – geographical diversity and variety of geometric shapes. It demonstrates the ability of the featured artists to engage in creative dialogues across national and geographical boundaries. Although the abstract artistic language tends to be comparable across borders, each artist’s painting style has its own hallmark features materialised through distinctive layering and brushstrokes.
The exhibition is deliberately designed to represent only non-domestic artists, confirming that Mark Rothko Art Centre is home to the largest international collection of contemporary painting in the Baltics. As of now, the collection is comprised of more than 2,000 artworks in various media – from painting, ceramics and graphic art to textile and photography. The Rothko Centre remains committed to preserving this valuable assemblage and making it publicly available through customised exhibition projects both on its own premises and in other cultural spaces across Latvia and beyond.
Several other exhibitions assembled from the Rothko Centre collection are currently on show in a number of venues across Daugavpils. Thus, Secondary School of Design and Art “Saules” receives “Contemporary Latvian Painting”, Latgale Central Library offers assorted prints in an exhibition “City. Daugavpils” whilst Daugavpils District Culture Centre “Vārpa” displays “Sackalikes” – a ceramic set by Pēteris Martinsons.
Artists featured in GEO:
Tomas Rudokas, Ramūnas Čeponis (Lithuania), Barbara Rosengarth, Edeltraut Rath, Martin Voßwinkel (Germany), Cipriano Martinez (Venezuela, UK) Andrew Colbert, Deann Sirlin (USA), Gonzalo Rodríguez Gómez (Spain), Katarzyna Kowalska, Pawel Wasowski, Piotr Skowron, Anna Podlewska-Polit (Poland), Katarina Balunova (Slovakia), George Meertens, José Heerkens (the Netherlands), Alexander Selivanov (Russia), Agostino Tulumello (Italy)
Curators:
Zane Melāne, Māris Čačka, project manager – Alise Anna Sondore
