Kogo gallery is pleased to present Elīna Vītola’s solo exhibition Common issues in painting and everyday life: crapstraction at our Tartu gallery space. This marks the Latvian artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery, and Vītola’s first solo exhibition in Estonia.
Elīna Vītola studied painting in Riga, where she currently lives and works. Painting, the picturesque and the points where they connect with everyday triviality are central issues in the oeuvre of Vītola. The artist approaches colors, objects, and painting as a whole in a conceptual way, pitching humorous questions about its subject matter, technique, and material. Vītola has pointed out that she is interested in art and canned fruits — this phrase could be taken as a key handed to the viewer to unlock her artworks.
The caption of the exhibition is Common Issues in Painting and Everyday Life: Crapstraction, the word “crapstraction” is a synonym for Zombie Formalism, which characterizes the revival of abstractionism. The current exhibition is the newest chapter of Vītola’s 28 years long ongoing research project “How to become an artist?”. The exhibition consists of artist’s various attempts to find solutions to problems that she as an abstract artist is facing in her everyday life and in the process of painting. While searching for a way to become successful as an artist, Vītola is looking at different stereotypes that are associated with art and artists, through which she tries to demystify the painting process itself.
Elīna Vītola
Common issues in painting and everyday life: crapstraction
18/09/18 – 19/10/18
Kogo gallery
Kastani 42, Tartu
Photography: Kogo gallery
