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press release
SALON REAL / VIRTUAL 7# Salon: Viktors Svikis | Candies and Stones
27.3.- 5.4.2021
Opening: on Saturday, March 27, 14 – 19 h
15 min time slots / come-and-go / one-by-one
galerie michaela stock, Schleifmühlgasse 18
My mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates.
You never know what you're gonna get.
Forrest Gump
The seventh exhibition series Salon Real / Virtual presents the latest large-scale oil paintings and drawings by Latvian artist Viktors Svikis under the title "Candies and Stones". As the exhibition title suggests, the works are seductively colorful and sweet at first glance, but upon closer inspection it is difficult to glean anything satisfying from the jumble of motifs depicted.
Svikis' artistic strategy is based in particular on contrasts and psychoanalytical reflections on his previously experienced reality, which exist as such in the artist's mind in the course of the painting and drawing work process. In doing so the nature of the image and language in our society and their mutual medial relationships and demarcations are constantly questioned. Following in the footsteps of Winckelmann and Lessing, the artist addresses an old dilemma about the boundaries of painting and poetry.
Although Svikis' works clearly reflect classical, painterly and drawing approaches, they are provocative with their collage-like design. In this point he appropriates the surrealist pictorial structure, allowing seemingly unrelated and alienating motifs and realities to exist on the same plane. From such a deceptive arbitrariness of motifs, patterns, and perspectives, a new, poetic narrative level of the artwork emerges. As in a surrealist dream, different pictorial levels coexist in parallel.
According to the principle of dialectical thinking, Svikis' paintings and drawings live from opposites; in a field of tension between l'art pour l'art and engagement. Following his painterly impulse, Svikis strings confetti, underwear, chickens, mermaids, fish, turtles, bricks, etc. onto the canvas. He playfully and intuitively controls what is depicted during the working process. Individual themes revolve semantically around the title of the artwork, while their combinability and connection to each other leave more room for interpretation and reconstruction of the story. He develops ideas further, comes up with new stories and always over-paints. Svikis leaves it to the viewer to find his own story, because the reality of painting is not the truth.
Mag. Jelena Grabovac
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Studio visit on request
A studio visit with Viktors Svikis can be booked free of charge with the gallery owner Michaela Stock. Appointments can be made by calling +43 699 19207778.
The virtual exhibition is documented in the form of printed information brochures. At the same time, art lovers can purchase a limited signed art poster for € 20,-.
SALON REAL / VIRTUAL new gallery concept: real vs virtual
The focus is on the interlocking of the real and virtual worlds and their combination of acoustic, visual, haptic stimuli. The goal is to dock the real world more strongly and actively at the interface with the virtual world, thereby setting in motion new ways of thinking and working processes and in this way further developing interactive media art. Fireside chats in Salon Real with experts from various disciplines complete the virtual exhibition.