Maksla XO Gallery participated in the 16th edition of the international contemporary art fair ArtVilnius’25, held from 3–5 October at the Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo in Vilnius. Among 80 galleries and art institutions from 16 countries, Māksla XO Gallery was recognized among the TOP 7 Best Galleries of the fair.

At ArtVilnius'25 Maksla XO collection unites three different visions of the landscape: landscape as a line, landscape as an essay, and landscape as a national cultural identity. Each artist brings a mature and recognisable visual language, offering a nuanced exploration of place, memory, and perception within the broader context of contemporary landscape painting.

Roman Korovin’s (Latvia) artistic language is defined by the poetics of the anti-sublime. His works are created as witty and anecdotal series of episodes, most often grouped in diptychs or triptychs, thus creating new meanings in mutual interaction. His photography, drawing, video and installation are characterized by precise observation, visual paradoxes and humor about ordinary objects and everyday episodes. Roman Korovin’s painting invites reflection on the medium itself – the chiaroscuro, contrasts, semi-tones – where the depicted object can be brought to abstraction. His painting glows quietly with a particular picturesque sensuality, marked by simplicity and truthfulness. Melting snow, autumn leaves, a white flower, a duck in flight, wind, glass, a soap holder, a birch tree and its shadow, a road between a pine tree and a bush... these are the modest heroes of Roman Korovin’s stories about painting, inviting the viewer to meditate on timeless themes, while retaining the artist’s philosophical tendency to “joke”.

Arturs Bērziņš (Latvia) has developed a distinctive drawing-painting technique that lies halfway between photography and painting – a process he describes as a “long photograph” in terms of time. His works serve as conceptual studies of contemporary events and historical contexts. In his series “Trees Grow Where They Are Allowed; Trees Grow as They Are Allowed”, the artist continues his exploration of the structures that shape culture and environment, space and time, modes of thought, and archetypes. For over a decade, his primary source of insight has been nature and the environment in which he lives and works – the world, place, territory, and his home – Latvia.
“We perceive the environment in which we live as a scene. The environment leaves an impression on the human personality – perhaps it is our con-text. The environment is changeable and is changed mainly by man himself.
We repeat what we see in ourselves, feel it and experience it. Everything we see appears in consciousness as an image and groups of images. Many different images can be seen in nature. However, selecting the most thought-provoking ones is important to create a new image of nature that makes us feel and think about what was, is and will be, what it was like, is and will be, why was, is and will be”– Arturs Bērziņš

Michel Castaignet (France) extensive knowledge of art history and his love of art history allow him to work in different styles and cause constant search, motivating him to move from one series of artworks to the next. In recent years, the artist has been interested in graphically simplifying the complexity of the art world, looking for new links between drawing and painting. This approach is reflected in his series “Landscape as a Line”. “I’ve been looking at ways to make a very minimal landscape. Just a few lines to suggest a tree, a hedge…It could also be a tree and a cloud, depends on the colours. Maybe just trees… A bit bolder, tree and hedge. A tree and a cloud. Trees. Tree, cloud and hedge. Tree, haystack and horizon. I was done with drawings, I started painting this little idea. The result is quite joyful I think. The plain and colourful shapes become signs and their balances create minimal landscape that invite the viewer to reflect about the impermanence of the world” – Michel Castaignet