UKRAINE – WINNING TWO AWARDS IN ARTVILNIUS’15

The ArtVilnius’15 Contemporary Art Fair opened its 6th edition today with an announcement of five award winners, including two representatives of this year’s guest country Ukraine. “Siberia” by Nikita Shalennyi (Ukraine) was awarded in the nomination of the Best Installation of ArtVilnius’15 and Ukrainian Art Gallery TSEKH was awarded as the Best Foreign Gallery.

The other three award winners were from Lithuania. The panel of judges announced Vilnius-based Prospektas Gallery representing artist Remigijus Treigys to be the Best ArtVilnius’15 Lithuanian Gallery. The Best ArtVilnius’15 Artist award went to Laima Oržekauskienė-Ore represented by ArtCart Gallery from Kaunas. The Best ArtVilnius’15 Young Artist (under 35) award went to Petras Lincevičius, whose works are displayed at Vilnius Academy of Arts Exhibition Hall “Titanikas”. Petras Lincevičius is also the winner of a EUR 1,000 prize established by Law Firm COBALT, maecenas of the art fair. Other winners will receive prizes from art fair partners Nestle Baltics.

According to Dr. Prof. Raminta Jurėnaitė, chairlady of the judging panel for awards, the judging of awards is a difficult task, as many galleries are performing well and presenting a number of great works. “As our guest country, Ukraine received much attention. We selected TSEKH Gallery (Kyiv) as the Best Foreign Gallery for its outstanding work, representation of really interesting artists, and active participation in the overall presentation of Ukrainian art in ArtVilnius’15. “Siberia” was awarded in the nomination of the Best Installation. It is an exclusive work presenting an impressive metaphor created through the use of simple, minimalistic means”, said the chairlady of the judging panel.

Commenting on the choice of the other three nominations, Jurėnaitė said that not a single judgement was easy. “We gave the Best Artist’s award to Laima Oržekauskienė-Ore, finding her to be a mature Lithuanian artist, well-established on the international art stage and, at the same time, always experimenting and going beyond the boundaries of standard arts”, commented Jurėnaitė on the nominations, and added that selecting the best young artist was not easier at all due to the abundance of young artists being presented at the art fair.

Finally, the jury judged in favour of very young artist Petras Lincevičius, for whom Ernestas Parulskis, art critic and member of the panel of judges, said to have adapted a tri-criteria formula invented by him. “My judgement about an artist or an artwork depends on three criteria. I ask myself: Would I like to organise an exhibition of a given artist? Would I like to write about given artworks? And would I like to have these artworks in my collection?”, explained Parulskis. According to the panel member, he answered these three questions in respect of Petras Lincevičius in the affirmative. The artist appeared to have been favoured by other members of the judging panel, too. “So, the formula I have invented is really working”, assured Parulskis.

As for the Prospektas Gallery (Vilnius), the award of the Best Lithuanian Art Gallery was mainly honoured because of Remigijus Treigys’ photographs exhibited by the gallery. “The art of photography plays a very important role in Lithuania; Lithuanian photography artists win prestigious international awards. That’s why we marked the Prospektas Gallery”, said the chairlady of the judging panel Jurėnaitė.

The winners in two more categories will be selected by visitors of the art fair. Voting for the Best Gallery and the Best Artist will take place during all days of ArtVilnius’15. The winners will be announced on 28 June. The audience award prizes are established by the main media partners of the art fair, Lietuvos Rytas.

ArtVilnius’15 will be open 25 – 28 June. During the four days of the art fair, art lovers, collectors and professionals will be presented 55 contemporary art galleries from 15 countries of the world, spanning 12,000 sq. m across three halls of the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO.