STATEMENT

     Although my work wanders amongst painting, drawing and ceramics, my preferred medium is oil painting. It allows me to play with the seriousness and traditional views often attributed to figurative oil painting.

         My artistic research is dominated by my own living environment. I have an anthropological interest in stereotypes, lifestyles and subcultures. My current painterly language derives from a curiosity about shifting perception of the natural and the artificiality in the everyday. How the entanglement or conflict of these elements can help us to approach personal and global dystopian events.

      I am fascinated by visual aspects of seduction which I explore in my work through notions of sensuality and importance of surface. In paintings I create a shiny transparent layer that subtly reveals tactility. In ceramics, a skin-like coat allows a more sensorial appreciation of the voluntarily incomplete biomorphic shapes. Although the figures are recognizable, they are blurred, letting the viewer imagine what he is really seeing.

BIO

Born in Vilnius, Lithuania (1983), Alina Melnikova lives and works in Vilnius and Barcelona. She has exhibited her works widely in Europe -Austria, Spain, Germany, Poland and Finland- since graduating from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2008.
Through different mediums such as drawing, installation, ceramics, performance and -especially- oil painting, Alina explores visual aspects of seduction through notions of sensuality, sexuality and erotism. In her newest works, A. Melnikova researches the relation between naturality and artificiality and its sociocultural reflections.
 Using different media and adding ecological and cultural dimensions to a culturally engaged look, the artist creates visually and semantically multi-layered artifacts.
In 2009, she won the Award for Young Painters in Lithuania; in 2013, she was invited to the international artist residency “La Cité Internationale des Arts” in Paris. In the same year, she was granted Artistic status by the Lithuanian Cultural Ministry.
Her work has been exhibited in art institutions of international importance like the KUMU Contemporary Art Center in Tallinn (Estonia) and the CAC of Vilnius (Lithuania). Alina’s work resides in contemporary art collections such as Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull Collection),  Lewben Art Foundation and Modern Art Center in Vilnius. In 2022 her work was included into the book “Lithuanian women artists. Women Artists in the Visual Arts from the Beginning of the 20th Century to the Present Day’’ by A.Narušytė. She has an upcoming group showing MOCAK Contemporary art center of Krakow (Poland) in 2023.
Parallely, she is an associate member of La Escocesa – analogical art creation center in Barcelona, Spain and forms a part of the Artistic duo together with Italian artist Fabrizio Contarino where she explores collectively engaging creative processes which deal with visual memory related to pop culture.

 

Education:
2014     Node Center of Curatorial Studies, Curatorial course for artists “Expanding Exhibitions: Innovative Approches to Curating”, Berlin (Germany)
2008     Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, M. A. in Easel Painting, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2005     Universidad de Miguel Hernández de Elche, Erasmus semester: Painting, installation and video, Altea (Spain)
Awards and Scholarships:
2021   Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artist Association (LIAA) Prize for production of an installation Cosmic Cave
2021    Solo show prize, Lithuanian Authors´ Right Association (LATGA)
2016   Lithuanian Culture Council Scholarship to produce new painting series “Obsession: Re(Virgin)”
2009   Young Painter’s Award in Lithuania, Third Prize: ¨I shall Get You Anyway¨ (Aš vis tiek tave pasieksiu)
2007 – 2008 – SLEIPNIR – Nordic Council of Ministers scholarship: granted to investigate performance art in Finland.
Residencies:
Since 2019  La Escocesa, associate resident, Barcelona (Spain)
2022    Belgrade AIR, Belgrade (Serbia)
2013      La Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (France)
2010     Free Art Celebration Residency, Potsdam (Germany)
2007      Hyyrivitalu Artist Residency, Tampere (Finland)
Art Fairs:
2018       Group show at Fresh Paint Art Fair – Tel-Aviv (Israel),  ‘’The Big Picture’’, The Rooster gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania), Art Vienna (Austria)
2017    Group show at YIA – Young International Artists, Paris (France)
2016   Solo show, Berliner Liste Contemporary Art Fair, Berlin (Germany)

Selected Exhibitions:
2022  Sixty Seconds Party, 424  Art Center, Belgrade (Serbia)
2021   Green Night, Sleep Tight, The Rooster Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2021   Cosmic Coral, Voguing Valleys, Boushy Bouquets, Furry Forests, Espai Souvenir, Barcelona (Spain)
2018   Tropical: Drawing Party, Barrak Art Center, Naha (Japan)
2018   Flash in the Daylight, Vilnius graphic center, (Lithuania)
2016   Dare or Dear, Trivium gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2012   Location Condition: Beauty and The Beast, Šv. Jonas str Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2008   Carmine, Tulips & Roses Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2005    Stories in Raum 35,  Gallery Raum 35, Vienna (Austria)
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2021       Kronos Festival, Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona (Spain)
2021       Exhibition at Locarno Film Festival, Locarno (Switzerland)
2018       The Big Picture, The Rooster gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2012      From Dusk to Dawn, 20 years of LGBT in Lithuania, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (Lithuania)     
Lithuanian Art: 18 exhibitions, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2011      Baltikum: Tides of Change, HangArt7, Salzburg (Austria)
2010      Inside of You/ Outside of Me/Inside of You,  Gallery 11 Line, Potsdam (Germany)
2009      Turbulence, Vilnius City Hall, Vilnius (Lithaunia)
               New Prospect, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius (Lithuania)
2008     PasiJos – Kaunas In Art: Contexts – Contemporary Art Festival, Architect´s House Gallery,
Kaunas (Lithuania)
               Elephant Bullet,  KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn (Estonia)
               Contemporary Lithuanian Art Exhibition “ANEW”,  Municipal Gallery bwa,  Bydgoszcz (Poland)