Exhibition time: 13 10 2023–19 11 2023
Atidarymas: October 13 | 18:00
Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas, Lithuania)
The exhibition "4XGB" of established artists Aidas Bareikis, Žilvinas Kempinas, Julius Ludavičius and Ieva Martinaitytė-Mediodia will open in Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, Kaunas) on October 13, Friday, at 6 PM. In the four letters of the exhibition title, the authors coded - "Four of the former "Good Evils".
"Good Evils" - a group founded in 1992 by young artists, students of the legendary Kęstutis Zapkus course. "Good Evils" boldly experimented and broke established norms - they were an important phenomenon in the artistic life of Lithuania at that time. In this exhibition, for the first time in thirty years, four former members of the group living and creating in New York, who are already known and recognized artists today, meet for a joint project.
Aidas Bareikis (b. 1967) graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1993 and Hunter College in New York in 1997. He creates installations from used objects. The works are effective in size and contain allusions to art history. The chaotic, brightly coloured installations depict the fragility of decaying objects, the upheavals of the contemporary world, fears, nihilism and destruction. The artist piles and wraps cultural objects with fabrics and cords, creating altar-like assemblages covered in paint and semi-recognisable rubbish.
Žilvinas Kempinas (b. 1969) graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Painting from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1993, and later completed a Master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in New York. Kempinas uses unconventional materials for active and dynamic artworks: installations, kinetic or minimalist sculptures and optical art. In many of his works, Kempinas uses film stock. The artist's use of the laws of nature, wind and gravity can be seen as a kind of extension of the field of sculpture.
Julius Ludavičius (b. 1969) graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1993 and Hunter College in New York in 1997. After arriving in the USA, Julius Ludavičius focused on painting. "My paintings are mostly semi-abstract. The overall structure is abstract, but the details, especially when seen up close, are realistic, like second thoughts, doubts, hallucinations, dreams or memories. I have always been interested in non-traditional canvas formats. Most of my works are like that - strange, irregular shapes, sometimes with holes and stones."
Ieva Martinaitytė-Mediodia (b. 1968) graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 1993, and in 2001 graduated in New York. Ieva Mediodia's paintings resemble the universe or the space of the internet. The artist herself remarks that when she creates her paintings, she feels like a player absorbed by the simulacra of the computer space - in the middle ground between the old and the new, the virtual and the real world. "When I start to paint and draw, I want the canvas to be like a film, to make it seem like everything is moving, rotating, breathing. And that's quite difficult to do in a two-dimensional space. Everything you see in my work is like a map of my consciousness".
The exhibition is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
