Kriste Stan

FOCAL LENGTH

 

21 10 2022 – 08 11 2022

We are separated by distance, a shifting length that allows us to peer, as if through brittle lace veils, at fragments of stories and crumbling narratives.

The canvases become stop-motion shots, filling up with silhouettes suspended in moments of love, despair and fury. Seemingly comfortably curled up, the bodies lean against the ceiling, not fitting into the rooms they have delineated themselves, looking for ways to find distance and, on the contrary, mutual attraction; all so that their clay torsos can continue to breathe, uninterrupted, unceasingly.

The works are pregnant with signs of the search for security, childhood memories, fairy tales, folklore, (ex)changing identities, and the confrontation between darkness and light. The objects surrounding the bodies are not made for their comfort or mediocre needs: they are shields and protections against inevitable gusts of change.

In her first solo exhibition, Kriste Stan explores the sensitivity and importance of human connection in extreme conditions, and the meaning of empathy in times when information reaches us through fragile screens.

Kriste Stan (Kristė Stankevičiūtė, b. 1993, Vilnius) obtained her BA in London Middlesex University in 2015. In 2009, she became when of the first Lithuanians to start a fashion and style blog, Feed Your Fashion Animal, and has been actively participating in the fashion world for over a decade now. After moving to England for her studies, the artist worked with various publications and brands, deepening her knowledge in fashion, and developing her personal activities between Vilnius and London. After graduating, Kristė rediscovered herself in graphic design and started expanding her clientele by creating linear drawings.

Inspired by her experiences in Los Angeles, where she was introduced to previously unknown ideas of light and architecture, Kriste Stan fell in love with Californian culture and lifestyle and embarked on new forms of expression, particularly painting on canvas. Black and white compositions were then enriched with colour, strict geometric shapes and stains. In her creative process, the artist pays major attention to colour and the relationship between lines and stains. Somewhat paradoxically, even when depicting emotionally heavy narratives, her works are based on different impressions of lightness.

Kristė Stan’s paintings and drawings can be found in modern private interiors all over the world, from Vilnius, Copenhagen and Berlin to American and Australian cities.

 

Exhibition Curator: Milda Dainovskytė

Exhibition Architecture: Vladas Suncovas

Graphic Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė

Textual Editing and Translation: Alexandra Bondarev

Photos by Visvaldas Morkevičius. Find more here