OVERGROWTH / Part of the series “Exhibitions that never happened”

The Rooster Gallery cordially invites you to a solo exhibition of painter Sandra Strēle “Overgrowth”, which will be open from September 29 to October 16 in the gallery’s exhibition space at 12 Šv. Brunono Bonifaco St. Opening hours of the gallery: IV–VI 4 p.m.–7 p.m., VII 2 p.m.–5 p.m. The exhibition opening will take place on September 29, 6 p.m.

In her work, Strēle draws on the tradition of landscape and architectural landscape. Her large-scale paintings and painting installations usually represent remote, alienated spaces, often surrounded by lush greenery. Strēle’s paintings are characterized by an unexpected structure and an original visual logic, which confuses the viewer’s gaze by the discrepancy of different scales, contrasts of precise, rational, free and surreal shapes, complicated perspectives, and manifold intersections of spaces and planes. The narrative of this exhibition focuses on overgrowth – an inevitable process, a proof of nature’s invincibility, a constant reminder of life’s subjection to time, unavoidable changes and the unknown. The one that hides behind the wild thickets or is subject to an unpredictable fate that will turn existing things and places into unreachable and obscure objects in the near or distant future. The plants that take over man-made and now abandoned places are like testimonies of something that is in the past and at the same time emerging, something that was once known, but is currently overgrowing to be rediscovered.

The narratives of Strēle’s art unfold in series. One painting follows another, and all of them are controlled by time, which seems both real and abstract all at once, shifting back and forth between the reflections and memories of the past and the imaginary scenarios of the future, often marked by the permeating mood of melancholy and nostalgia. Works included in this exhibition are a part of the series “Exhibitions that never happened”, which reflects on various aspects of the painter’s life, focusing on the flow of time. Impenetrable overgrown forest, overgrown pool, overgrown road and stairs, overgrown artist’s studio. All these motifs raise the question: what is this mysterious event that has changed the meaning of these places and spaces? And who is the observer?

Sandra Strēle (b. 1991) is a young Latvian painter. In 2016, she graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia with an MA in painting, and studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A recipient of scholarships of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation (2012), SEB Bank (2016), and Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (2019, 2021), and a winner of the Brederl von Sengbusch Art Prize (2014). A winner (2019) and finalist (2017, 2018) of the Young Painter Prize competition of the Baltic States. Since 2013, she has been taking part in group exhibitions, workshops and residencies in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, France, Germany and elsewhere, and held several solo shows in Latvia and Lithuania. Her works are held in the collections of the Lewben Art Foundation and the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.

The Rooster Gallery’s events are kindly supported by
Vilnius City Municipality.