From 9 April till 9 May 2022 on view an exhibition at the Archive Art Museum in Beijing 2022!

ORGANIZERS: Archive Art Museum, Pashmin Art Consortia

“My work embodies the most incredible states of the soul, and in it, I comment on people and situations. My expression is poetry rather than prose because when I work, I break away from pragmatic tasks and follow the subconscious,” says the artist Māris Čačka.

He labels his work with compact titles, such as OV, MR, TC or JE. They identify the canvasses but give no further clues for interpretation. According to the author, the titles can hold the initials of someone’s name or represent an encrypted conversation in the real world or the fiction realm. Even if the initials were revealed in full, the visual impact of the canvass would give more information and ground for reading the work than the title. The initials are an intimate diary, not a public declaration. On the other hand, the works on paper in the Intro Hall are classic graphical art (paper, letterpress, congreve, water-based printing dye), and its thematic appeal stems from the footprint motif.

But what exactly are neuro-pathways, and where do they lead? The forty works in the Great Hall are portraits and dedications produced in the indefinite zone between painting and graphics, but their form is not figurative or even abstract. The artist intuitively grasps the scattered “substance” of creative impulse but does not cling to it in an attempt to mould a specific person or symbol. He sticks to what “thickens” only enough to make the idea visible on canvas. Some works may recall the exquisite darkness of Old Master painting, others resemble the variegated textile printing of the 1950s, and still others remind of the morphological computer art of the 1990s. Čačka’s every work can spark instant associations with something known, but the mirage dissolves just as quickly. The viewer’s attention is caught by the dynamism of the works – the self-movement of form seems much faster than it is in realism and abstraction, faster even than the formal dynamism cultivated in modern art, but its nature suggests primeval chaos rather than calculated intention.

The “internal speed” of the works and their densely emotional textures suggested the exhibition title – Neuro-Pathways. It is a lyrically stylized concept from the neuroscience vocabulary, and its main context is today’s humanitarian challenges – the crisis of human cognitive abilities in the conditions of so-called multitasking. As scientist Adam Gazzaley puts it, in many ways, we are an ancient brain in a high-tech world. “The conflict is between our goal-setting abilities, which are so highly evolved, driving us to interact in high-interference environments to accomplish our goals, and our goal-enactment abilities, which have not evolved much at all from our primitive ancestors, representing fundamental limitations in our ability to process information. It is this conflict that results in goal interference and generates a palpable tension in our minds – a tension between what we want to do and what we can do.”1

Čačka’s work is a palpable visual metaphor for this current state, when an abundance of goals and interferences break out into sudden and surprising reactions, fragmenting and traumatizing ideas, creating an “impossible” technological mix, forgetting historical boundaries and forming unprecedented hybrids. Our ancient brains, which have humanized us by their tendency to perceive the “insignificant,” continue to do so today, but in the age of technology, the information flow becomes disproportionate and keeps “hurling” our minds through thousands of neuro-pathways. To paraphrase Gazzale, we can visualize Neuro-Pathways as a conflict between a mighty force, represented by our goals (in the context of this exhibition – intuition and imagination), which collides head-on with a powerful barrier, represented by the limitations to our cognitive control (material resistance and scale). Something deeply romantic, even tragic, flashes in the description of this contemporary clash. Farewell, the clear concepts of modernism, farewell, the apparent control of postmodernism. As a gardener, Māris Čačka hybridizes his works in a stylistically fresh (post-post) and aesthetically original form, and they race towards the unknown, at great speed and with intense romantic fervor. Their textures flash the values of historical romanticism – lyrical dreaminess, heroic elation and transformed tradition (embodied, for instance, by the Latgale glazed pottery greens or the grassy greens), and visible manifestations of sincere and profound reflections displayed for popular entertainment.

Čačka admits that he used to define all his work as “graphic art”, including the canvasses, because they are made with graphic techniques such as monotype, flat print, and others. “But I also deliberately use the technical “wrongs”, such as wet-on-wet or slippage,” he adds. One of the ways how contemporary painting develops is by absorbing various techniques, also graphical, and Māris Čačka contributes to this with his Neuro-Pathways (incidentally, this has also been done by other Latvian artists: Jānis Mitrēvics has used screen printing in the manner of drawing in his oil paintings of the 1990s; Kristaps Ģelzis has been integrating intarsia in his “film paintings” since 2011, and Sandra Krastiņa has been reusing her own templates, to name just a few).

In contrast to the Great Hall, the Neuro-Pathways in the Intro Hall are sophisticated graphics based on tradition. We see Čačka’s technical skill and a consistent poetic message in recurrent motifs of the bright blue color and traces of tiny footprints or scattered petals that seem to be leading us through the exhibit. At first glance, the works seem lyrical and playful, toying with the technical possibilities of congreve on paper and silver-metal laminated cardboard. But the two exhibition spaces are actually surprisingly close. If the visual language and content of the Great Hall echo the 21st-century cognitive crises, a distinct chronology of crises also applies to the Intro Hall – the works displayed there may be perceived in the context of a culture that emerged a century earlier when human spirituality came to be strongly affected by psychoanalysis. Freud was among the thinkers of the post-Christian era who challenged the world by formulating the libido and erotic dimension of life and argued that a future without illusion requires working with oneself and tending “one’s inner garden”. Čačka takes us in just into such a garden – the blue and speckled graphics in the Intro Hall are aestheticized pathways for overcoming one’s private neuroses. In this exhibition, the author opens up about himself and the people around him with ultimate tact and discretion and, to borrow from the neuroscience vocabulary, embodies the highest levels of cognitive ability – wisdom and feeling.

Organizers: “Riga Art Space” Exhibition Hall of the Association of Cultural Institutions of Rīga Municipality.

The exhibition is supported by the Rīga City Council, the State Culture Capital Foundation, SIVIA Association, INSPAIRUM and the Art Station Dubulti.

From 18 November till 20 November 2021, the team of the “SIVIA Gallery” had the pleasure of visiting and meeting the wonderful artists and participants of ART COLOGNE 2021 in Cologne, Germany.

It was a pleasure to meet the German artist Caro Jost and it was a special honor to see the artwork of Latvian artist Amanda Ziemele (Natalia Hug Gallery).

Second printmaking studio program of Graphic Art took place from 15 June 2021 until 15 October 2021.

The main aim of the program was to ensure the availability of professional graphic art in the Latgale region in order to increase the quality of the cultural environment and provide the public in Latgale with an opportunity to enjoy high-quality professional art products and events.

A total of 20 master class-type graphic lessons were implemented for graphic enthusiasts in a group of 6 participants, ensuring the acquisition of the professional basics of graphic media and promoting the understanding of composition in art.

Participating Artists: Anna Vnukova, Jolanta Ābele, Viktorija Kozlovska, Olga Vnukova, Tatjana Černova and Veronika Maizīte.

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On 16 October, the team of the “SIVIA Gallery” had the pleasure of visiting and meeting the wonderful artists and participants of ArtVilnius’21. Our goal was to get acquainted with new projects and art trends.

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On August 16-28, 13 artists from Lithuania and Latvia have settled into the creative process in the Eglės sanatorium. 

This year, 13 artists are participating in the painting plein air: eleven famous Lithuanian artists and two famous artists from Latvia. Painter Dalia Kasčiūnaitė, Valentinas Antanavičius, Rimas Bičiūnas, Bronius Gražys, Ričardas Filistovičius, Mindaugas Skudutis, Romualdas Balinskas, Ramūnas Grikevičius, Jonas Daniliauskas, Vaidotas Janulis, Mykolė Ganusauskaitė and guests from Latvia – Agnija Germane (Riga) and Maris Čačka (Daugavpils).

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From 28 June till 2 July, 2021 artist Baiba Priedīte participated in International pleinair “Wall-100” in Žeimelis,Lithuania.

Plein air exhibition is on view until 28 August, 2021 at Žiemgalos museum, Žeimelis, Lithuania.

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Māris Čačka’s latest solo exhibition DIRECT DIALOGUES is on display from 7 June 2020 till 26 June 2021 in Daugavpils Regional and Art Museum (Rīgas Str. 9, Daugavpils, Latvia)

“Direct Dialogues” is a reunion show – this year’s first opportunity to resume in-person visits to museums and exhibition grounds and enjoy a face-to-face public encounter with the latest body of work by artist Māris Čačka. In the present circumstances, an individual artistic experience that involves direct interaction between art and the viewer, who surrenders to its impact, tries to make sense of the artist’s abstract dialogues and decode his intended message, becomes all the more precious.

In the new series of large-scale pieces created over the past couple of years, Māris Čačka continues the theme of dialogues which has absorbed him for some time and has been made public in a few of his previous major solo shows, such as “Definite and Indefinite Dialogues” (Dubulti Art Station, 2018) and “Dialogues. Parallels. Dimensions” (National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Belarus, 2019; Madona Local History and Art Museum, 2020).

This time, the focus is on ‘direct dialogues’ as the artist explores an essential component of our everyday life – the need for interpersonal interaction. To depict communication and social contacts in their myriad shapes and forms, Čačka uses his signature blend of painterly and graphic means of expression. He spins his visual stories with a dialogical structure and uses layers and layers of colour to conceptualise the transformation of his sentiments, recording the effects of spoken and unspoken words, encounters, reflections and emotions.

The overlapping nature of daily interactions is visualised through generous layering by adding and removing coats of paint, using the elements of monotype, glazing and other graphic means and touches until the creator arrives at the final composition that embodies his intended vision. Occasionally, one dialogue blends into another. According to the artist, the different layers within one piece reveal cross-communications and resumed conversations, much like in real life where we are perpetually awash with waves and waves of information and interaction. A keen eye for creative experiments and a bold commitment to combining seemingly incompatible media and techniques continue to shape and develop Čačka’s individual artistic style.

Tatjana Černova

Māris Čačka (1976) is a graphic artist, art educator and curator of international art projects. His academic qualifications include a doctoral degree in education (2009) and a master’s degree in art (2011). Currently director of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre (since 2020), he has been at the institution from its establishment, formerly as creative director and deputy head. Membership in creative associations has him affiliated with the Art Teachers Union (co-founder, 1998), SIVIA Gallery (founder, 2019), Latvian Artists Union (2010) and the Latvian Chamber of Graphic Art (2011). Dating from 1997, his exhibition record amounts to 85 shows in Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Poland and China, including 24 solo shows across domestic and international grounds. His curatorial activities add up to more than 70 international art projects and symposia (2004–2021). The artist’s work is held in museum and private collections in Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, UK, Poland and Norway.