Ricardas Blazukas » Exhibition

‘Geometry of Colour’ Exhibition

Ricardas — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 20:02:54 +0000

Ricardas Blazukas – ‘Geometry of Colour’ opened on 11th May 2015 and continued until 4th June 2015 at Almakan in Kuwait City.

‘Geometry of Colour’ is a selection of Ricardas Blazukas’ abstract paintings, hand sketches, cast sculptures and a neon installation – all exploring the relationship of simple form and colour. The exhibited series of work is only a small number of carefully chosen artwork from various collections, which Ricardas produced in his artistic career: ‘Intuitive Geometry’ (2014-2015), ‘Notational Alphabet’ (2013-2015), ‘I Ching Chance Compositions’ (2013-2015) and ‘Pyramid Sculptures’ (2012-2015). This collection of work summarizes the two subjects that Ricardas is most passionate about – geometry and colour. Each collection is highly influenced by Ricardas’ love for typography, graffiti, architecture and sculptural form. Combining these elements together with various art techniques Ricardas was able to create a visual collection of work, which is open to viewers interpretation.

Opening night photographs can be found on my previous blog post here.

‘Geometry of Colour’ Opening Night

Ricardas — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 19:45:07 +0000

Ricardas Blazukas – ’Geometry of Colour’ exhibition at Almakan in Kuwait City opened on 11th May 2015 and continued until 4th June 2015.

Photographs by Jassim Al Nashmi.

Photographs of the gallery can be found on my next blog post here.

Description of the exhibition

‘Intuitive Geometry’ 2014-2015

‘Intuitive Geometry’ is Ricardas’ most recent body of work consisting of paintings, which he started and developed after his move to Kuwait in 2014. ‘Intuitive Geometry’ was mostly inspired by his earlier set of ‘I Ching’ chance experiments and their results, which Ricardas interpreted to establish geometry, scale and colour combinations for his new series. Ricardas’ extensive development of hand sketched elements produced in ‘I Ching’ compositions led him to a series of variously scaled, simple geometries complemented by unexpected and instinctive colour choices.

‘Notational Alphabet’ 2013-2015

‘Notational Alphabet’ is a set of 24 geometry compositions represented through three-dimensional form, letters and symbols in an attempt to create a notational system / symbolic alphabet. The alphabet was developed digitally by using four basic geometrical shapes: a square, a circle, a triangle and a rectangle, in order to create a variety of combinations complemented by colour. The study was then transformed into a series of handwritten letters, graphic symbols and sculptures. Through paintings and sculpture of the alphabet Ricardas aims to focus on each symbol individually in order to emphasize the presence of a simple form.

‘I Ching Chance Compositions’ 2013-2015

‘I Ching’ also known as the ‘Book of Changes’ is an ancient book of chance – the oldest of the Chinese classics, which provides 64 answers / hexagrams to any given question. Inspired by John Cage and his use of ‘I Ching’ in the ‘Music of Changes’, Ricardas created four composition charts consisting of 64 geometrical shapes, quantities, scale types and colours. Each of 64 I Ching hexagrams were assigned to the composition charts. Using ‘I Ching’ as an oracle Ricardas asked questions:

How many shapes to use in the composition? What is each shape?
What is the colour of each shape?
What is the scale of each shape?

This process of uncontrollable selection enabled Ricardas to create a series of chance compositions, which were then reproduced into a series of large and small scale paintings.

‘Pyramid Sculptures’ 2012-2015

Ricardas created his first ‘Pyramid Sculptures’ during his Masters of Architecture degree in London in 2012. Inspired by Roman Baroque Architect Francesco Borromini’s use of geometry and symmetry, Ricardas designed geometrical compositions in two dimensions, which were then transformed into three-dimensional objects and architectural spaces. During this development process Ricardas created triangular sculptures of various scales, shapes and materials. Amongst all produced pieces, the most notable are colourful ‘Pyramid Tiles’, which received attention from Saatchi Art curators and were consecutively featured on Saatchi Art Online Collections, such as: ‘Spotlight on the UK for Frieze Week’, ‘Art Objects’ and ‘Radical Geometry’.

YourAOK Benchmark 2015 – Charity Exhibition

Ricardas — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 18:03:32 +0000

Next weekend – YourAOK Benchmark ’15 Charity Exhibition with Yours Truly amongst 26 leading artists and creatives from the Middle East.

17-19th January 2015, 6-9pm at GUST, Kuwait.

As part of benefiting the community, raising money for those in need is a necessity. Through art and creativity this necessity becomes a cultural event that enhances people’s knowledge in the art field by combining art with humanity.
Following the benchmark forum, yourAOK in collaboration with the interior designer Lolwa AlRadwan will be hosting a charity exhibition that will bring together artists and creatives to portray some of their best works for sale.
خدمة المجتمع واجب .. ومساعدة المحتاجين ضرورة .. و من خلال الفن و الإبداع تصبح هذه الضرورة حدث ثقافي يعزز معرفة المجتمع في مجال الفن.. كجزء من ملتقى ابداعك مهنة و بالتعاون مع المصممة لولوة الرضوان .. تقيم شبكة YourAOK المعرض الخيري الذي سيجمع مجموعة من الفنانين و المبدعين الذين سيشاركون بأعمالهم المميزة.

More on http://yourAOK.com/Benchmark

Woven Typography – DS15

Ricardas — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:39:48 +0000

This woven text sign was a design I did with my coursemates Tim Waines and Piotr Garstecki for Design Studio 15 End of Year Exhibition at Westminster University in July 2014.

The same typography that I developed for the ‘here comes everybody‘ ceramic piece was applied to create this woven DS15 sign.

Ceramic Typography – here comes everybody

Ricardas — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 11:59:10 +0000

This ceramic typography sign was a design I did for Design Studio 15 End of Year Exhibition at Westminster University in July 2014.

The typography of the sign as well as its aesthetic quality was designed using chance techniques. The letters are assembled out of small hand-pressed interconnecting clay components. Raku method of firing ceramics was used as a generator of chance in producing the unexpected aesthetic of glazes. The result of the experiment is typography with fascinating variety of colours and textures.

Thanks to Tim Waines and Piotr Garstecki for their huge contribution on this piece.

‘pyramid tiles’ – sculpture collection for sale

Ricardas — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 17:40:21 +0000

This is a collection of handmade minimalistic sculptural tiles with pyramids shifting out of the vanishing point creating a deceptive impression. The concept of the tiles is based on geometrical composition of squares, inspiration being Baroque architecture.

The ‘pink pyramid tile’ has recently been selected by Saatchi Art currator Bridget Carron to feature in a ‘Radical Geometry’ collection.

The sculptures are made of high quality plaster, coated in primer and acrylic paint. The frames are bespoke made to hold the sculptures.
The collection is limited to 60 sculptures.

The size of the sculpture itself is 39cm x 39cm x 4.5cm, whilst the framed size is 50cm x 50cm x 5cm.

These sculptures are available for sale. You can get in touch via contact form below if interested.

Installation / Time Lapse Video

Ricardas — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:03:53 +0000

I have done a number of projects on various scales during the last month. This one here is the biggest one of them – an installation.

Or watch in better quality on VIMEO

This might seem like just a graffiti / painting on a set of plinths, but there is more behind it. The idea I am fascinated about the most is – the provocation of students. This installation was done at university, on all plinths of our MArch Architecture studio a week before our interim crits.

Taking all the plinths might seem rude at first, but architecture is about behaviour change and interaction between a space and its users, which is what this installation did. The painting on the plinths gave them a sense of untouchability (or at least I hoped it will). I was curious what will happen with a crit day approaching. Will students start to take the plinths one by one? They belong to them as much as they belong to me.

I wanted to see a progressive defragmentation of this painting, but what I’ve discovered instead, not even 24hours after the installation was made – plinths composed randomly, looking somewhat similar to Picasso’s paintings. Brilliant – a number of coursemates decided to re-organize them.

I loved the idea of chance in this installation – stacking the plinths randomly and then painting a symbol on them left me wondering how will each plinth look like. The random sizes of plinths stacked together was also a way of escaping a typical grid. It also has an effective three-dimensional quality, due to lengths of plinths they can be spaced in a random way, again creating something completely different and completely by chance.

The crits went great too, as my tutor Sean Griffiths, Co-Founter of FAT said: “Ricardas, you have had the best presense during the crits today”, meaning that all students were presenting their models on plinths with a piece of my painted symbol.

I was hoping that after the crits I will collect them and stack them in a random way, but there was no need for that, as like I mentioned previously, it happened sooner than I expected thanks to my coursemates.

The painted symbol is from my own created alphabet, which you can check out here and download as a font here.

I have also made a small model of this installation, which will appear on the blog soon.

Above you will find a time-lapse video of the installation making process, and at the bottom a photo gallery of the installation, as well as a photo gallery of plinths being used in the studio by other students to display their work.

Dalston Youth Centre 2011

Ricardas — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:42:57 +0000

Dalston Art & Dance Youth Centre, Ashwin Street, E8.

Postcards from Uni Exhibition

Ricardas — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 08:42:57 +0000

DS15 postcards from exhibition were gone quickly, but I kept a couple to myself.

At the back of each postcard is a blurb about my uni project.

DS15 – Westminster University Architecture Summer Show 2013

Ricardas — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:18:13 +0000

It has been an amazing year for Design Studio 15 and it finished off with a brilliant exhibition!

I feel very honoured and overly thankful to my tutors Kester Rattenbury and Sean Griffiths and all coursemates for supporting the idea to make an installation with my pyramid tiles for the show. Thanks for Mat Crawford for helping me throughout the making process.

If you haven’t been yet, the exhibition is open until 5th July.

35 Marylebone Road, Baker Street Station, London.

For more about DS15 visit our unit blog.