RADION PETROFF "GROUP EXHIBITION"

November 30 – December 16 Rodion Petroff’s „Group Exhibition” will be held at Šiauliai Art Gallery.

Opening of the exhibition – Thursday, November 30, at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free during the opening of the exhibition. Musical performance will be performed by Šiauliai Boys and Youth Choir „Dagilėlis”. Evening DJ – TO_DUBA.

Rodion Petroff is an artist, curator and critic in one person and this is not a joke or a pretension of genius. The group exhibition of one author, conceived and realized by him, sounds like an oxymoron, but when you come to the gallery, this is exactly what you see: one author awakens many artists in himself and combines their works into a conceptual whole – i.e. creates. And this is not some fantasy film, but reality – no matter how strange this word sounds in the post-simulacra existence. However, the viewer only wins from this – by coming to one exhibition, he gets three! Hunters-anglers will be able to see what the artist shows (what is depicted in the paintings, what the sculptural objects resemble); the members of the circle of hardworking hands, with their noses stuck, will study how all this is painted, cast, made; detective lovers will look for hidden meanings and try to answer the question why? This exhibition resembles a roman à clé (Roman with a key),

– only instead of one key, many are needed here. A burglar’s wrench won’t help – unless you want to listen to the wailing sirens.

Rodion Petroff creates (multi)conceptual painting, putting question marks to every element of the work. Who is the author? A picture? Paint? Exhibition? The conceptual, linguistic level of the work is no less important to him than the plastic. The key to the painting often lies precisely in the language – the artist breaks up jumbled words or takes a word out of context and turns it into a homonym. Sound like abracadabra? Yes. Abracadabra self-portrait – and auto (as in a car) and portrait – which is much harder to find in a picture depicting an old car dump. The self-portrait is definitely there, as is automation, as is the author – playing with the audience’s hiding places. The question of authorship in contemporary art is constantly being re-examined – is it a name, a brand, or the bridge of genius that has lost its validity, but still reigns in the auctions? Did the author rise after Michel Foucault had killed him? Rodion finds his way out – he offers a new author for each picture (or cycle of them). And then there is the one who has all of their business cards. Such an almost flux / mature impresario for whom art is a joke. But created with deadly seriousness and beastly excitement.

You think you have come to a painting exhibition? So throw a rock at the picture! And don’t be surprised to see shards. You came to the exhibition, and entered the kingdom of curved mirrors of painting. It doesn’t matter if it’s oil on canvas or virtual. It has several rules:

What you see is not necessarily what is pictured.
What is depicted is not necessarily what the author intended.
What the author wanted to say is not necessarily what you want to hear.
Do not try to follow all the rules and solve all the riddles – some works are deliberately unfinished – the author will finish them after receiving another grant.
Don’t try to separate art and life, reality and fiction, abstraction and figurative. And especially – from one author to another.
Play it! Word football, picture cards, sculpture clogs – horror stories and art history. Because by playing the games invented by Rodion, you participate in the writing of art history. And it is very possible that not only art.

Art critic – Laima Kreivytė

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The exhibition is part of the contemporary art and fashion festival VIRUS’28.

The festival is financed by Šiauliai City Municipality and the Lithuanian council for culture

Organizer – Šiauliai Art Gallery

The main information partner is Lithuanian National Radio and Television

Partners and sponsors: news portal „Etaplius”, AB „Šiaulių bankas”, UAB „Laurema”, UAB „Gorila reklama”, AB „Vilniaus Pergalė”, „Soya Asia”, KĮ „Polifonija”, State Drama Theater of Šiaulių, Šiaulių Didždvaris Gymnasium , Šiauliai Athletics and Wellness Center, MO Museum, Lithuanian National Art Museum, Šiauliai State College, Šiauliai Technology Training Center, dance troupe „NUEPIKO”, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius College of Design, Krakow Art School, Krakow Fashion Week, Estonian Academy of Arts, Latvian Academy of Arts, UAB „Virginijus ir Ko”, Šiauliai „Dagilėlis” Singing School, Lviv Fashion Week

The author of the festival design is Marius Žalneravičius