News Archive

07.02. - 06.03.2012. Girts Muiznieks "Perfume"

07.02.2012. - 06.03.2012.

Galerija "Māksla XO"

Elizabetes iela 14, Rīga, LV 1010

"Perfume" 2012, oil on canvas, 59,5x49,5

GIRTS MUIZNIEKS: PERFUME

Māksla XO  Gallery, 07.02. – 06.03.2012

When on the morning of January 18, the painter, Girts Muiznieks, opened his long-unfinished homepage on the global internet, instead of the usual under construction sign, he saw a black & white photograph of a woman and a note left by a Palestinian hacker: “we won't stop, we'll come back”. Unbeknownst to them, the hackers had become an essential part of the painter's world of art. The beings that inhabit this world have already been pre-programmed with randomness at birth; it is a goal to reach for and the thing of greatest value. Muiznieks has always denied that hand-work is the determinant phenomenon of painting, instead stressing its emotionally intellectual capacity, and asserting that he finishes his works by looking at them for a long time. It is exactly this energy of feelings – elusive, indescribable and visually non-pictorial – that makes up the stuff of his work. The notion of aroma – or “Perfume”, as he calls this exhibition – is possibly the best way to interpret these works, in which the reminiscences of the past and present are iconagraphies of the 20th and 21st centuries that have either influenced his views or that have given him the opportunity to experience the world. Muiznieks is not a revolutionary who aches to change things; rather, he is a hedonist who enjoys the whole, vast spectrum of emotion. In life, significant meaning can be seen in a magazine from 1968 – a notable time – bought in a second-hand bookstore on the banks of the Seine and featuring a piece on B&B holidays with black & white photographs; in a set-design sketch drawn by his father, for the Daile Theater's performance of “Mary Stuart”; or a message left by hackers. It doesn't matter if it's today's news with all of its attributes, or an apparition from the past that, for most people, has lost its meaning. You just have to remember – when looking at Girts Muiznieks' paintings, you must free your senses. Because perfume lives in the air and cannot be found in a realistic shape or form.

Girts Muiznieks was born in 1956 and graduated from the Latvian Academy of Art. His field of work is painting.

In 2003, he received the Artist Union of Latvia's “Prize of the Year” for his exhibitions “Portrait of a Parade” (Rīgas Galerija) and “Paintings” (Ivonna Veiherte Art Gallery).

In 2007, Muiznieks received both the “Diena” newspaper's “Culture Award of the Year” for his solo show, “Salut”, at Latvia's National Museum of Art, and the Artist Union of Latvia's gold medal for “Artist of the Year”. Muižnieks' works can be found in Latvia's National Museum of Art, the Artist Union of Latvia Museum, Georgia's Museum of Art (Tbilsi), the European Central Bank (Frankfurt), the collections of Russia's Ministry of Culture and the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), as well in other public and private collections in Latvia and elsewhere.

                                                                                        Daiga Rudzate, 2012.