17.06. - 21.06.2014

Lithuanian Exhibition Centre “Litexpo”, Laisvės av. 5, Vilnius, Lithuania

Halle 5, Stand 5.25

Maksla XO at ART VILNIUS 2014 / 17.06. – 21.06.2014

Since 1999 the Maksla XO gallery has developed its focus on contemporary and emerging art - painting, sculpture and works on paper – monumental drawings, photography and graphic art – mezzotint, aquatint, lithography, ranging from traditional representation to contemporary forms of urban and social art.
It represents both established and emerging artists of several generations from Latvia, whose styles have become their "trademarks" not only in the Latvian art context but also in international projects - Helena Heinrihsone, Ivars Heinrihsons, Kristaps Gelzis, Kaspars Podnieks, Harijs Brants, Ilmars Blumbergs, Edvards Grube, Girts Muiznieks, Tatjana Krivenkova, Inga Meldere, Jana Brike, Vineta Kaulaca.
Every year some 17 to 23 exhibitions are held in the gallery space or outside and to date there have been more thant two hundred such shows.
At ART VILNIUS 2014, the gallery will show the established presentation of the photographies and video “Unusual Place” and "Remmel's Dairy" by Kaspars Podnieks, who represented Latvia at the 55 Biennale in Venice.
Also the gallery will show the photography cycle “Roses” and paintings by Helena Heinrihsone, who tells us not only about beauty, rather – a beautiful passing. And the recent works – objects from old Lats banknotes, colour pigment and glass - by paintress Vija Zarina.

Kaspars Podnieks (1980) - the young and promising artist (nominated for the Purvītis Award 2011). In this year he was presented Latvia at the 55 Biennale in Venice. The artist’s areas of activity are video, installation, and staged photography.
Kaspars Podnieks’s conveys about his metaphysical ties with the familiar environment of his native Drusti village. Here one can observe a rather paradoxical combination: a blend of urban intellectualism with Latvian country mentality, which hits at a kind of peasant, slyness, practicality, faith and even naiveté and sincerity of the artist that he himself admits. And besides Podnieks’s image is illusory, poetic and it isn’t documentary realism, artist tills everything with meaningful angles.

Helena Heinrihsone (1948) - paintress appeared in the Latvian art scene in the 1970s. Already then and among her own generation too, her works stood out with their daring. Sometimes her paintings would not be accepted for exhibitions because they were considered to be challenging and such she is still today – too exposed, too daring, too lively in colours, too expressive.
In 1980s and 1990s Helena Heinrihsone’s colouring became even more decorative, the images more laconic and her painting as a whole – more expressive. The colourfulness and elegance in her work appears at the same time as grotesque or a parody. Conflict resolution plays a big part in her works, regardless of the subject. Since 1990’s laconism in her painting compositions has been replaced with real themes of wild nature. Even the character of the Helena’s rose has been hypertrophied, greatly exceeding the human height. Rose is no longer a symbol of just beauty, rather – of beautiful passing, death, just like in romanticism.
Parallel to that the artist evolves herself also in watercolour, lithography, photography, painted porcelain and animation.

Vija Zariņa (1961) – the established Latvian paintress, whose language of the painting is very feminine, refined, ornamental. Peace and harmony radiate from the compositions, thus reflecting the internal world and thinking of the artist.
Vija Zarina works with equal care in the figural genre, still-lives and portraits. The paintress chooses to depict objects that in the course of time have turned into the symbols of aesthetic beauty. She sees the beautiful - the primeval form.
In artist’s recent works - objects Vija Zarina  uses the recognizable Latvian Lats banknotes and confronts the beauty, depth and eternity of nature against the authority, resources and demonic powers of money and constant movement.
We live, breathe, see and remember. We recognize. Our land, our money, although already the former. To battle with demons of money and give them a face is both interesting, and unusual.

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