EXCHANGE

About

Culturally, the exhibition is an exchange of ideas between (AV17) GALLERY in Vilnius and ROCKELMANN& in Berlin. Thematically, the artists’ works also embody crossing points: they enact a visual and referential exchange between formal sculpture and more everyday, quotidian objects or materials. Nerijus Erminas and Rafael Piesliak create compositions or inclusions of ornamental and often evocative objects — cut glass vases, ceramic tiles, functional and ornate lamps — which have the effect of cutting through cultures. They evoke images of homes and informal spaces like a stream of details that place the artists’ work in a certain time and place. Yet the artists also cross these tropes with formal references to 20th century sculpture. The effect locates one history so firmly within the other that the works teeter between sculptural references and their evocative motifs, hinting at the formal underpinnings of ornament and the decorative origins of abstract sculpture. The other two artists in the exhibition, Rimintas Milkintas and Andrius Erminas, play with formal elements in perfectly opposing ways: Milkintas’s work embodies modernist sculpture, playing with formal sculptural elements such as balance and volume; Erminas’ work physically plays with space as though it were addressing the concerns of modernist sculpture while appearing to be an altered functional object—the kind of container that might transport sculpture from Vilnius to Berlin.

We cordially invite you to join us for the opening of this exciting group show, with a reception taking place on November 24th from 7-9pm. For more information, the german press release or high-res images please contact amanda@rockelmann-and.com.

Andrius Erminas was born in 1971 in Klaipėda, Lithuania, and now resides and works in Vilnius, Lithuania. Erminas has presented his works in the UK, Germany, Belarus, Poland, Macedonia, Denmark, and Bulgaria. Erminas is well known for his sensitive and associative sculptural objects and art installations. Erminas uses references that construct an imaginative narrative and transform easily recognizable everyday objects and materials into new symbolic sculptural works. Insertion, 2012, like many of Erminas's works, references interpersonal and existential themes, reflecting on dialectical opposites such as life and death, culture and nature, tradition and modernity.

Nerijus Erminas was born in 1976 in Klaipéda, Lithuania, and resides and works in Vilnius, Lithuania. Erminas has held exhibitions in Lithuania, Denmark, Italy, and Germany. In 2011, the artist’s works were included in the 54th Venice Biennale and exhibited in the Lithuanian Pavilion as part of the project Behind the White Curtain. Nerijus Erminas’ work is characterized by a sensitive transformation of reality into surreal and subconscious experiences. The artist uses his compositions to analyze universally relevant and familiar topics, focusing on emotional experiences. His work Trophy, 2009 is a good example of his process of observing and analysing everyday rituals, such as the displays people make in their homes, interpreting both cultural and political contexts in ways that express personal as well as collective experience.

Rimantas Milkintas is a sculptor and installation artist. He was born in 1977 in He was born in Šilalé, Lithuania, and now resides in Vilnius. He has presented works in Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Belgium, Italy, Finland, Lithuania, and Poland. The artist also works as a lecturer at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art. Milkintas’s sculpture Reverse II, 2015, combines minimalist aesthetics and kinetic plasticity, made from iron yet balanced at an angle lightly against the wall. His sculptural compositions are often characterized by tension, for instance juxtaposing the physical properties of materials, such as flexibility, sturdiness, soft, fragility, with the sculpture’s placement or arrangement.

Rafal Piesliak was born in 1983 in Vilnius, Lithuania, lives and works in Vilnius. In 2010, the artist received the Polish National Award for Merit in Culture. Piesliak is a conceptual sculptor who creates spatial installations and objects from various sources of light. One of the most important themes of his work is the connection of a person’s mental and emotional state with the surrounding environment. The artist reflects on this topic in his installation Baricade, 2016, by engaging the exhibition space through the use of found objects, electrical components and lights, using both floor and wall space to draw the eye from large elements to small details, such as text fragments.