SLA Art Space is pleased to present Spectropia, an exhibition of new works by the Lithuanian artist Aidas Bareikis, on view January 9 through February 26, 2021 at 307 W 30th Street, New York, NY.

The exhibition will feature twenty works from the artist's ongoing Spectropia series. The title takes its name from J.H. Brown’s ”Spectropia, or Surprising Illusions showing Ghosts everywhere and of any color”. This book was published in 1864 in New York, at the end of American Civil War. Distressed by growing belief in the “spirit world” and public interest in spiritualism in Antebellum America, J.H. Brown published a book on ”optical illusion”, or “afterimages of ghosts” - phosphenes, inherent electrical charges produced by retina, which provides an experience of light in the absence of light - hoping to debunk the notion of the reality of apparitions. Bareikis draws the parallel between Brown’s closed eye’s “ghost moment” and the phantom state of our times, when archaisms of pre-modern figuration come to haunt “closed eye’s moment” of postmodernism.

Brown wrote,“[m]ental epidemics seem at certain seasons to affect our minds''. Perhaps Brown would recognize the present as one of those seasons. Using this historically important and fun book as inspiration and ironically borrowing the techniques of mediums and practitioners of the psychic arts Bareikis channels the spirit of the artist and the skillful hand to create a series of wonderfully spectacular drawings of figurations. Like the afterimage of the Ghost, they flout in front of the viewers eyes and fade-away into the landscape of bursting colors.

Aidas Bareikis was born in Vilnius, Lithuania in 1967. He studied painting at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Following graduation in 1993, he went to Hunter College in New York with a Fulbright grant, where he received a MFA in 1997. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Aidas Bareikis is known for his installations. His work explores the dangerous lengths of unrestrained consumerism, transforming readymade objects into scenes of wasteland and post-apocalyptic landscapes, hard to defy symphonizations of objects in space. His works have been exhibited at prominent institutions worldwide.

Solo Exhibitions

2019 Omeny, Galerija Vartai, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2018 Records, Trivium gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania 2016 Barrel of Fortune, CANADA, New York, NY; 2015 Atkakliai isiedes, Siauliu art gallery, Siauliai, LT; 2014 Eccho Conditioner, Galerija Vartai, Vilnius, LT; 2008 Easy Times, Diethardt Collection, Graz, Austria; Easy Times, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; Fancy Meetings, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2007 Fancy Meetings, Locust Projects, Miami, FL; 2006 The Guard of Sorry Spirit, Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO; 2005 Straight to the Top, I’ll Take…, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria; 2004 Accidious, IBID Projects, London, UK; The World Belongs to Nobody But Me, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA; Rise Up, Solitude, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2003 Le Charme de la Vie, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; Glad to Hear from You, Zacheta Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, Poland; 2002 Glad to Hear from You, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2001 Silence Before the Curve, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY; 2000 Aidas Bareikis, CAC, Berlin, Germany; 1999 La Vie en Rose, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019 Head With Many Thoughts, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2017 In the Abstract, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; 2016 Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Kim Dorland, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; 2014 Inversion, Evil Goods, Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Vilnius, LT; 2013 Part of a Larger Whole, CAC, Vilnius, LT; 2012 Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Martos Gallery, New York, NY; 2011 Free Soil : Aidas Bareikis, Huma Bhabha, Jeff Davis, Anya Kielar, Lily Ludlow, Keith McCulloch, Robin Peck, CANADA, New York, NY; 2011 Dirt Don’t Hurt, curated by Bill Saylor, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; Aidas Bareikis, Bill Saylor, Shoot The Lobster, New York, NY; 2010 Lithuanian Art 2000- 2010- 10 years, CAC Vilnius, LT; In There, Out Here, curated by Bill Saylor, Leo Koenig projekte, NY; 2008 Apocalypse, Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Canneto sull'Oglio, Italy; 2007 Destroy Athens (exhibited Easy Times), The 1st Athens Biennial, Athens, Greece; The harder you look, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece; 2005 When Humor Becomes Painful, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland; 2001 Galerie Eleni Koroneou, Athens, Greece; Crossing the Line, Queens Museum, New York, NY; 2000 Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, Long Island City, NY; 1999 Generation Z, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA, Long Island City, NY.