"Spectropia" by Aidas Bareikis

307 West 30th Street,New York NY 10001

09 January, 2021

Description

Aidas Bareikis Solo Exhibition “Spectropia” January 9-February 6, 2021 SLA Art SLA Art Space, housed on the first floor of the Lithuanian Alliance of America, is pleased to present Spectropia, an exhibition of new works by the Lithuanian artist Aidas Bareikis, on view January 9 through February 6, 2021 at 307 W 30th Street, New York, NY. In 2015, Bareikis, along with a few fellow artists, helped to establish the SLA art and cultural space in order to provide a venue for events and a gathering place for members both within and outside of the Lithuanian Alliance community. This is Bareiki’s first solo show at the gallery. The exhibition will feature twenty works from the artist's ongoing Spectropia series. The title takes its name from J.H. Brown’s Spectropia, or Surprising Illusions showing Ghosts Everywhere and of any Color. This book was published in 1864 in New York, at the end of American Civil War. Distressed by growing belief in the “spirit world” and public interest in spiritualism in Antebellum America, J.H. Brown published a book on ”optical illusion”, debunking the notion of the reality of apparitions. In March 2020, when Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization and countries worldwide began closing their borders, conspiracy theories ignoring science proliferated, and political unrest divided America once again. While under quarantine, Aidas Bareikis created a series of drawings that allude to the conditions of the present moment. Brown wrote,“mental epidemics seem at certain seasons to affect our minds'. 'Perhaps Brown would recognize the present as one of those seasons. Using this historically important and entertaining book as inspiration and ironically borrowing the techniques of mediums and practitioners of the psychic arts, Bareikis channels the spirit of the artist and the skillful hand to create a series of wonderfully spectacular figural drawings. Like the afterimage of the ghost, they float and flaunt their eerie presence in front of the viewer’s eyes and fade away into a landscape of bursting colors. Aidas Bareikis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1967. He studied painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Following graduation in 1993, he went to Hunter College in New York with a Fulbright grant, where he received an MFA in 1997. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Aidas Bareikis is known for his installations. His work explores the dangerous lengths of unrestrained consumerism, transforming readymade objects into scenes of wastelands and post-apocalyptic landscapes. His works have been exhibited at prominent institutions worldwide. Solo Exhibitions 2019 Omeny, Galerija Vartai, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2018 Records, Trivium gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania 2016 Barrel of Fortune, CANADA, New York, NY; 2015 Atkakliai isiedes, Siauliu art gallery, Siauliai, LT; 2014 Eccho Conditioner, Galerija Vartai, Vilnius, LT; 2008 Easy Times, Diethardt Collection, Graz, Austria; Easy Times, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; Fancy Meetings, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2007 Fancy Meetings, Locust Projects, Miami, FL; 2006 The Guard of Sorry Spirit, Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO; 2005 Straight to the Top, I’ll Take…, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; 2004 Accidious, IBID Projects, London, UK; The World Belongs to Nobody But Me, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA; Rise Up, Solitude, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2003 Le Charme de la Vie, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; Glad to Hear from You, Zacheta Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; 2002 Glad to Hear from You, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2001 Silence Before the Curve, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2000 Aidas Bareikis, CAC, Berlin, Germany; 1999 La Vie en Rose, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY Selected Group Exhibitions 2019 Head With Many Thoughts, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2017 In the Abstract, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; 2016 Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Kim Dorland, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; 2014 Inversion, Evil Goods, Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Vilnius, LT; 2013 Part of a Larger Whole, CAC, Vilnius, LT; 2012 Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Martos Gallery, New York, NY; 2011 Free Soil : Aidas Bareikis, Huma Bhabha, Jeff Davis, Anya Kielar, Lily Ludlow, Keith McCulloch, Robin Peck, CANADA, New York, NY; 2011 Dirt Don’t Hurt, curated by Bill Saylor, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Shoot The Lobster, New York, NY; 2010 Lithuanian Art 2000- 2010- 10 years, CAC Vilnius, LT; In There, Out Here, curated by Bill Saylor, Leo Koenig projekte, NY; 2008 Apocalypse, Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Canneto sull'Oglio, Italy; 2007 Destroy Athens (exhibited Easy Times), The 1st Athens Biennial, Athens, Greece; The harder you look, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece; 2005 When Humor Becomes Painful, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland; 2001 Galerie Eleni Koroneou, Athens, Greece; Crossing the Line, Queens Museum, New York, NY; 2000 Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, Long Island City, NY; 1999 Generation Z, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, Long Island City, NY. Aidas Bareikis By Shantel Rose Miller In regards to Bareikis Drawings the element of how the visuality of grotesqueness shown throughout his work is quite intriguing. The works of his Drawings are filled with movement, drama, flow — but the subject matter of what is portrayed makes one pause to the hint of death and darkness that is represented enveloped in color. Bones, skeletal figure, ominous with a vibrancy of life. Aidas Bareikis Drawings are vigorous in the details of the hand within, enthusiastic in expression of the figures, imaginative: movement of chaos, a skeletal figure riding a horse, abnormal elongated physiques. The collaboration of the juxtaposition of each visual object within his Drawings speaks to the playfulness, seriousness of life & death: a clothe bone figure in movement of dance playing a guitar. Bareikis Drawings are a world filled with the opposite of each end colliding; visually it is fiery, intense, colorful. Each line it seems is an expression of vitality within his Drawings, bursting with energy. Very direct in its composition of each work. Individually each ghost has its own spirit of expression in what is depicted. The essence of spirit within the Drawings of each Artwork is emphatic, speaking to the aesthetics of the Artist.