11.01. - 03.02.2024

Galerija "Māksla XO"

Elizabetes iela 14, Rīga, LV 1010

JURIS PETRASKEVICS

Undefined Gestures

„I am interested in the border between realities... and for me, the level of feeling seems to be the most important... what thoughts my work allows people to evoke, how it develops...”
In recent exhibitions, Juris Petraškevičs unveils a diversity of drawings, shapes, textures, gestures, and the interplay of lines and materiality. In his latest exhibition, “Undefined Gestures”, the artist elevates drawing to a three-dimensional. The small-format works on silk paper undergo a delicate metamorphosis, skillfully blending the materiality of paper with graphite, pigments, pastel, acrylic, and wax, transforming into sculptural, three-dimensional surfaces, where the trajectory of a single line, the interwoven structure of lines, and the colour field itself has its value and can be a story.
„The drawings remain untitled because I wanted to create them in a manner similar to music without a programmatic orientation. The viewer’s revelations, among others’ perspectives, can be considered full-fledged versions of these works,” Juris Petraškevičs, 2024.

Juris Petraškevičs (1953) is the Head of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Professor of the Art Academy of Latvia. Over the past decade, he has participated in more than twenty international group exhibitions across countries such as Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. The artist engages in various visual art mediums, including graphics, painting, book illustration, and design. Notably, he has contributed as a coin designer for Latvijas Banka, specifically in creating coin series like “Roots” and the “Coin commemorating the barricades of January 1991”. The artist has been honoured with several awards and diplomas at international graphic art exhibitions, recognizing his excellence in book illustrations and animation works in Latvia and abroad.