Artist
RUTE MERK
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Rute Merk was born in Lithuania in 1991 and lives and works in Berlin. She received her BA in Painting from Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2013 and acquired her painting diploma from Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, 2020. Merk draws fuzzy lines among genders, anonymous identities, and also the integration of realistic fiction and virtual realities in the facture of her painting which reverberates in its aesthetics of late ’90s RPG video games. Staging her subject matters into the seemingly computer generated imagery and scenes, Merk takes a deep look into the distance between a person and the phantasmal of the given image, which simultaneously becomes a document and distortion arisen from the triumph of digital world and reformation of the individual. Unknown figures become animated through resemblance to specific personage in the state of virtual existence, a reincarnation of human spirits in the context of technological achievement. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg; Kunstverein München, Munich; RUPERT, Vilnius; and Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius. Recent solo exhibitions include: Solitaire at Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, 2020; Sprites at Downs & Ross, New York, 2019; Virtualacra at VENT Gallery, Vienna, 2018; and Spirits Within at Editorial, Vilnius, 2018.
Rute Merk, Jomanté, 2020, oil on canvas, 118 x 87 cm
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Solo Exhibitions
2021 Стрілецька, WT Foundation, Kyiv, UA 2020 SS20, Downs & Ross, New York, US 2020 Solitaire, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN 2019 Sprites, Downs & Ross, New York, US 2018 Virtualacra, VENT Gallery, Vienna, AT 2018 Spirits Within, Editorial, Vilnius, LT Group Exhibitions 2021 Vacation, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN 2021 [Permission Denied], Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, CN 2021 Strained Intimacies, Hussenot, Paris, FR 2019 Inner Pockets, Editorial, Vilnius, LT 2019 Jahresgaben, Kunstverein München, Munich, DE 2019 Fakten Träumen – Dreaming Facts, Galerie Weisser Elefant, Berlin, DE 2019 TT, Atletika Gallery, Vilnius, LT 2019 XVII a., Autarkia, Vilnius, LT 2019 L’artiste devant sa toile, Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg, DE 2018 Jahresgaben, Kunstverein München, Munich, DE 2018 Jahresausstellung, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich, DE 2018 Entangled Tales, RUPERT, Vilnius, LT 2017 JCDecaux Prize, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, LT 2017 White Walkers, curated by Kaspars Groševs, Tallinas 10, Riga, LV 2017 Body and Darkness, Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius, LT 2017 Children of the New East, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, EE 2016 Žilvitis (Willow), Galerija VARTAI, Vilnius, LT 2016 Joy and Mirror, Galerija 427, Riga, LV 2016 Growing Insistence, Šiauliai Art Gallery, Šiauliai, LT 2015 Young Painter’s Prize, RUPERT, Vilnius, LT 2014 Work-in-Progress, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, LT 2013 Young Painter’s Prize, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, LT 2013 24 Spaces – A Cacophony, Malmö Konsthall, Sweden 2012 Painting in Lithuania, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, LT 2012 Contemporary Past: Tracking a Postcard, Nida Art Colony, LT 2012 Story II – we hear same, DE KIJKDOOS, Amsterdam, NL Awards 2017 Winner of Audience Prize, JCDecaux Young Artists Prize, Vilnius, LT 2015 Painter’s Prize, Vilnius, LT 2013 Young Painter’s Prize, Vilnius, LT Collections Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva, CH Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, US MO Museum, Vilnius, LT M Woods Museum, Beijing, CN Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, CN X Museum, Beijing, CN |