In my beginning is my end: art by Hsiao Chin
Hsiao Chin was born in Shanghai in 1935 and his creative work is saturated by a deep understanding of Chinese culture. Equally, his paintings radiate knowledge of the history of European art. In the 1950s, he and a number of fellow thinkers founded the first Chinese abstract art society – the Ton-Fan Art Group. He was also the founder of the European avant-garde movement “Movimento Punto” in the early 1960s in Italy (Milan).
In the late 1950s, Hsiao Chin arrived in Spain, but found its art education too “conservative” and moved to Milan, which at the time was a hub for artists from around the world. Alongside artists like Lucio Fontana he helped shape European abstract painting. But it should also be noted that his encounter with Milan and European culture prompted him to reflect on the Chinese traditions that had nurtured his early life.
The artist’s paintings included in the book fuse Western and Asian elements of painting and culture, creating drama out of the encounter of traditional Chinese brushstrokes with the colour palette of European painting, through the language of Buddhism and Western modernism.
Exhibition
July 31 – October 25, 2020
at Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre
Mihaila Str. 3, Daugavpils, Latvia
Curation: Philip Dodd and Farida Zaletilo
Assistant curator: Enrica Costamagna
In my beginning is my end: art by Hsiao Chin
Paperback
100 pages
Design & Layout: Pavels Terentjevs
Texts: Hsiao Chin, Māris Čačka, Philip Dodd, Richard Cork
Photographer: Jian Hui-Chung
Publisher: Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre
Sarmīte Māliņa – A Monograph
“It’s harder to write about things that cause true emotional experience. Especially it it’s caused by art that is short in words. In such cases, there comes a desire not to think about what is around you, but only and solely about the artwork itself. It is harder not because you have to dislodge your mind to find the right words, but because when you write about art that is affecting to yourself, something forces you into making excuses. As in the moment after confessing one in love. This dissonance in me is caused by Sarmīte Māliņa’s works.” writes Tomass Pārups, the author of the monograph.
This book is the first edition which summarises all the works of Sarmīte Māliņa that have preserved a visual evidence, starting with reproductions of watercolours from the time when Māliņa was studying in the Art Academy of Latvia, to completely recent objects and installations. The range of works also includes illustrations and cover designs for the “Avots” magazine, whose artistic director she was from the late 1980s until the liquidation of the magazine at the beginning of the 1990s.
The texts in the book intersect with reproductions of artworks, photographs from Māliņa’s personal archive, project sketches, cuttings from press releases and conversations with people that are close to her. All these materials help to realise the life and artistic activities of Sarmīte Māliņa, providing an insight into the work of this remarkable artist.
Sarmīte Māliņa. A Monograph
Hard cover
256 pager
Author: Tomass Pārups
Design: Sarmīte Māliņa, Dace Eglīte
Image processing: Jānis Veiss
Printed at: Jelgavas tipogrāfija
Published by: Izdevniecība “Neputns”
Expanding Colour – The Art of Terry Frost
Expanding Color: The Art of Terry Frost is an exhibition highlighting the formative periods of artists Terry Frost’s career, including key paintings and prints that established him as a leading Abstract British artist, OBE, John Moore Prize winner, Royal Academician and world-class colorist.
This publication is a comprehensive overview of the artist’s most remarkable work selection.
Reinis Lismanis
Reinis Lismanis – Trial and Error
Trial and Error is an accumulation of artworks, photographs, videos and installations that Reinis Lismanis has made over a period of six years. Lismanis has been exploring photographic production and the traditional systems that lie behind the scenes of its processes and methods. In a self-reflective manner, his work both acknowledges and challenges the conventional structures of image making, exhibition display systems and artistic production in general. This publication is a comprehensive overview of the artist’s recent practice, in a non-hierarchical way mixing snapshots from his studio and trips to various cities around the world with documentation of exhibitions the artist has recently held.
“I have found photography, in its classical mode of being, to be an extremely fertile ground to stand on, albeit a limiting one as well. As part of my explorations, looking at the intrinsic elements of production – be they technological, social, economical – is often the point of departure, and everything is as important as everything else,” Lismanis states.
Trial and Error, 23 x 30 cm, softcover with flaps, 128 pages, edition of 500, design by Ott Metusala, Offset printed in Latvia, published by Skinnerboox, ISBN 978-88-94895-34-6
September 2019
Edition of 500
23 x 30 cm
Softcover with flaps
128 pages
Design by Ott Metusala
Texts by Christos Hadjioannou, Reinis Lismanis, Paulius Petraitis and Ilaria Speri
Supported by State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, VV Foundation
Printed at Dardedze Hologrāfija, Latvia
Published by Skinnerboox, Italy
ISBN 978-88-94895-34-6
EUR 28 / GBP 25
Catalogue of the exhibition “What Even”
On 26 July the first VV Foundation edition – the catalogue of the exhibition “What Even” – was published. The participants of the exhibition – Elza Sīle, Vika Eksta, GolfClayderman, Subspatial.xyz and Katrīna Čemme. The catalogue offers an in-depth look at the concept of the exhibition by curator Tomass Pārups, as well as information about each of the authors of the exhibition and their artworks. The catalogue also features the essay “Artwork as a Memory Reference in the Age of Modern Technology” by Vilnis Štrams, the founder of VV Foundation. The catalogue was designed by Katrīna Čemme and edited by Vents Vīnbergs.
