December 16, 2016 - April 22, 2017
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Gallery Talk with the Artists and Curator, 5:30pm
John Caperton, The Print Center's Jensen Bryan Curator, was joined by artists Rebecca Gilbert and Gintaras Česonis, Chairman of the Lithuanian Photographer's Association and organizer of Daily Life.
Opening Reception, 6:00 - 8:00pm
“Daily routine is where we are, and as everything that is the closest, it becomes virtually invisible.” - Milda Kiaušaitė, writer
The exhibition featured artists from two generations, one worked under the repression and censorship of Soviet occupation and another since independence in 1990. In these images, we saw their commonplace existence, which often bordered on the absurd, complete with the grime and pain accumulated in the corners of history and of individual lives.
The older generation, active in the 1960s and 70s, was comprised of a group of artists considered the masters of Lithuanian photography including Romualdas Augūnas, Aleksandras Macijauskas, Antanas Miežanskas, Romualdas Požerskis, Romualdas Rakauskas and Antanas Sutkus. These photographers did not work to provoke social conflict, but rather publicized and highlighted the universal problems of being during the Soviet era. Other photographers from that time, such as Vitas Luckus and Algirdas Šeškus, subscribed to avant-garde style, communicating in a different visual language.
The more recent generation of photographers, which has emerged since 2000, includes Gintaras Česonis, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Donatas Stankevičius and Arturas Valiauga, speak to us in the language of today. Their work is characterized by an analysis of varied surroundings, groups of people and phenomena. They schematize and inventory experiences and life events, often with an almost clinical quality. Their photography is not impulsive; instead it is calculated and carefully plotted.
About the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association
Established in 1933, the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association is the central organization for photography in Lithuania. Originally established as an amateur photographers’ association, early activities were suspended at the onset of Soviet occupation following World War II. In 1969, after a hard fought struggle with the Soviet bureaucracy, the organization was established as the Association of Lithuanian Art Photographers. It was the only such organization in the Soviet Union, and initially it functioned as a union. Membership provided exclusive access to professional work.
Along with the exhibition, The Print Center had a collection of exceptional photo books from Lithuania available for viewing.
This exhibition was the most recent activity resulting from The Print Center’s partnership with Lithuania. Earlier in the fall of 2016, an exhibition created by The Print Center, Streets of Philadelphia: 1970-1985, traveled to the Prospekto Gallery, the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association’s gallery in Vilnius. Executive Director Elizabeth Spungen said, “The relationship we have forged with our colleagues in Lithuania has been rich and rewarding. We look forward to continuing the relationship and the sharing of the heritage of both cities and nations.”
Gallery Notes, Daily Life Photography from Lithuania
Press
“Review | Daily Life: Photography from Lithuania at Philadelphia’s Print Center,” Lev Feigin, MUSÉE Magazine,
January 26, 2017 pdf
“Galleries: Despair behind the Curtain," Edith Newhall, Philly.com,
January 22, 2017 pdf
"The Print Center presents Daily Life: Photography from Lithuania, Lithuania in pictures." Pamela J. Forsythe, Broad Street Review,
December 27, 2016 pdf
All the works in the show were printed in Philadelphia by Jeffrey Stockbridge of Stockbridge Fine Art Printing.
Click to View More Images from Daily Life: Photography from Lithuania
December 16, 2016 - April 22, 2017
Past Events
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Rebecca Gilbert: Artist Lecture, 6:00pm
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Gallery Talk with the Artists and Curator, 5:30pm
John Caperton, The Print Center's Jensen Bryan Curator, was joined by artists Rebecca Gilbert and Gintaras Česonis, Chairman of the Lithuanian Photographer's Association and organizer of Daily Life.
Opening Reception, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Rebecca Gilbert: wonder brought together new prints by the Philadelphia-based artist. Gilbert’s works came out of her interest in both traditional print processes and her poetic response to the landscape.
This new body of work grew out of an artist residency Gilbert had in 2015 at OCHO, Questa, NM. During the residency she explored the countryside around Questa guided by a treasure map created in the form of a poem. It was created by a retired art collector living in Santa Fe named Forrest Fenn, who has hidden more than one million dollars in gold somewhere in the rugged nearby countryside. Gilbert’s hunt for Fenn’s treasure became an opportunity to take notes and make sketches of the beautiful landscape with its interesting rock formations and hidden petroglyphs, as well as of objects she found during her hikes. Those sketches were the starting point for the engravings and woodcuts in this exhibition. While Gilbert’s treasure hunting activities are recent, her work has focused on gold in the past.
“I have been using dirt, water, sticks, coins and gold as imagery in my work to symbolize that which we impulsively crave, seek out and hold valuable.” - Rebecca Gilbert
About the Artist
Rebecca Gilbert received her BFA in Printmaking from Marshall University, Huntington, WV and her MFA in Printmaking/Book Arts from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia. She also studied nontoxic etching at the Grafisk Eksperimentarium, Capileira, Spain. For several years she was a member of Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia, where she presented three solo exhibitions and curated several group exhibitions. Gilbert’s work is in numerous public collections, including the Free Library of Philadelphia Print and Picture Collection; Princeton University Graphic Arts Library; and Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA. Her work has been included in recent exhibitions at Birke Art Gallery, Marshall University, Huntington, WV; Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA; The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA; and Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. Gilbert is represented by The Print Center Gallery Store. In 2014, The Print Center exhibited Gilbert’s work at the Editions Artists’ Book Fair, New York, NY.
Gallery Notes, Rebecca Gilbert: wonder
Press
"Hunt, Gather, Build, In The Studio with Rebecca Gilbert," Joseph Rose, YouTube, May 22, 2017 pdf
"Rebecca Gilbert: Wonder," Martha Knox, Words on Woodcuts (blog), March 3, 2017 pdf
“Rebecca Gilbert,” Rachel Sitkin, The Studio Visit, March 21, 2016 pdf