Žilvinas Kempinas (born 1969 in

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė'') is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plungė is known for Plungė Manor and its park, Samogitian Art Museum. In the Oginskiai manor park stands the Perkūnas oak a natural monument. The Lourdes o ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

) is a contemporary visual artist. He lives and works in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Biography

Zilvinas Kempinas studied at the

Vilnius Academy of Art The Vilnius Academy of Arts ( lt, Vilniaus dailės akademija, previously ''State Art Institute of Lithuania'') in Vilnius, Lithuania, grants a variety of degrees in the arts. History The Academy traces its roots back to the creation of the Arc ...

s during the time when

was one of the first republics to declare sovereignty from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1990. He graduated the Academy in 1993. Kempinas exhibited works that merged paintings, sculptures, performance art and installations. He collaborated with

Oskaras Koršunovas Oskaras Koršunovas (born 6 March 1969) is a Lithuanian theatre director. Biography Oskaras Koršunovas was born on March 6, 1969, in Vilnius, Lithuania. He began his career as a theatre director in 1994 at the Lithuanian Academy of Music a ...

and created set designs for “ The Old Woman 2”, “ Hello Sonia New Year”, “

The Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dut ...

”, and “ PS Byla OK” which won him the 1998 Kristoforas Award for Best Drama Theater Stage Design. Kempinas moved to New York at the end of 1997 and received an MFA in combined media from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

, City University of New York in 2002. His first New York show took place at

PS1 Contemporary Art Center MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

in 2003. In 2007, Kempinas was featured by ''Art Review Magazine'' as one of its 'Future Greats'. In the same year, he was awarded th
Calder Prize
and a residency a
Atelier Calder
in Saché,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 2008, the artist exhibited at the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

and, in 2009, in a solo show at the

Kunsthalle A kunsthalle is a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art gallery. It is distinct from an art museum by not having a permanent collection. In the German-speaking regions of Europe, ''Kunsthallen'' are often operated by ...

, Vienna. In 2009, Kempinas represented Lithuania at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

53rd International Art Exhibition in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. In 2012, Kempinas was awarded the

Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts The Lithuanian National Prize ( lt, Nacionalinė kultūros ir meno premija), established in 1989, is an award granted for achievements in culture and the arts. It has been awarded annually in six categories since 2006 (between 1989 and 2006 there w ...

Works

"Mr. Kempinas has an unusual ability to derive the maximum effects from the slightest of means. It gives his work a resonant economy and, for all its banality, a poetic relationship to the world at large." –

Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position. Early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...

Kempinas employs nontraditional materials to create active and dynamic exhibits, most commonly as installations. In many of his works, Kempinas utilizes his signature material, unwound

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...

. The use of the tape affects the viewer through various senses; visually, aurally and physically. In his work ''Double O'' from 2008, he directed two large electric fans at two loops of magnetic tape causing them to seemingly perpetually fly and dance between the fans. At the

2009, Kempinas presented ''Tube''. Located in the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, ''Tube'' consisted of magnetic tape strung parallel to the ground creating a large translucent tube or tunnel that viewers can walk through. The work addressed the physical and optical experience of the viewer, the passage of time, and the perception of the body and architecture." “Utilizing industrial fans in his installations to undulate loops of videotape, Žilvinas Kempinas creates gracious gestures in space that are at once minimalistic and yet keenly present. What is most fascinating about Kempinas is not the materials he employs but the transformative experience that his work evokes through its immateriality. In response to the expanse of Calder’s studio and the surrounding hills, Kempinas began working on a much larger scale in Saché. The dimensions of his now famous ''Tube'' (2008), a shimmering walkway of magnetic tape that ultimately filled the Lithuanian Pavilion in the 2009 Venice Biennale, was maximally scaled to fit the volume of the Saché studio. Kempinas is the only resident whose work has registered those ideal proportions that Calder designed for himself in 1962. – Alexander S. C. Rower "I am attracted to things that can transcend their own banality and materiality to become something else -- something more. I am going for something fundamentally natural. Looking at one of my works can, I hope, be like watching a flame or a running river. I want people to forget for a second what they are looking at and inhabit a parallel world, where abstract things make perfect sense as long as you are willing to take the time to look." – Zilvinas Kempinas, interview with Veronica Roberts, Museo Magazine.

Notable Exhibitions

* 2019 Zilvinas Kempinas, Liberté! Saison Culturelle 2019,

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

, France * 2019 ''Negative Space'', ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany * 2018 ''Action-Reaction 100 Years of Kinetic Art'', Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands * 2016 ''Tube''
Kunstraum Dornbirn
Dornbirn, Austria * 2016 ''Zilvinas Kempinas'',

IKON Gallery The Ikon Gallery () is an English gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Grade II listed, neo-gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henry Chamberlain in 1877. Ikon was set u ...

, Birmingham, United Kingdom * 2016 ''Calder Prize'',

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US * Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Compan ...

London, London, United Kingdom * 2016 ''

Sculpture by the Sea The Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney and Perth is Australia's largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition. This exhibition was initiated in 1997, at Bondi Beach and it featured sculptures by both Australian and overseas artists. In ...

: Cottesloe'', Cottesloe Beach, Australia * 2015 ''The Kaleidoscopic Turn'',

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

, Melbourne, Australia * 2014 ''Scarecrow'',

Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...

, Long Island City, New York, United States * 2013 ''Fountains'',

Reykjavik Art Museum Reykjavik Art Museum ( is, Listasafn Reykjavíkur ; founded in 1973) is the largest visual art institution in Iceland. It occupies three locations in Reykjavík; Hafnarhús by the old harbour Kjarvalsstaðir by Klambratún and Ásmundarsafn i ...

, Reykjavik, Iceland * 2013 ''Darkroom'',

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...

, Düsseldorf, Germany * 2013 ''Antigravity'', Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan * 2013 ''Slow Motion'',

Museum Tinguely The Museum Tinguely is an art museum in Basel, Switzerland that contains a permanent exhibition of the works of Swiss painter and sculptor Jean Tinguely. Located in the Solitudepark by the Rhine, the museum was designed by the Ticinese architect ...

, Basel, Switzerland * 2012 '' Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2012'', Niigata, Japan * 2011 ''Exhibition of the permanent collection (from 1960 to present),''

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Paris, France * 2011 ''Still,''

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, also referred to simply as ''The Garage Museum'', is a privately funded art gallery in Moscow. It was founded by Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich as the ''Garage Center for Contemporary Culture'' in 2008 an ...

, Moscow, Russia * 2011 ''Vartai 20 Years: Zilvinas Kempinas'', Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania * 2011 ''Our Magic Hour''
Yokohama Triennale
Yokohama, Japan * 2011 ''On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century'', Museum of Modern Art, New York City, United States * 2010 ''Airborne'', AV Festival,

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (also known simply as (the) Baltic, stylised as BALTIC) is a centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It hosts a frequently changing variety ...

, Gateshead Quays, United Kingdom * 2010 ''I Believe in Miracles: 10th anniversary of the Lambert Collection'',

Yvon Lambert Gallery Yvon Lambert Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Paris founded by Yvon Lambert in 1966. History In 1966, Yvon Lambert opened his first gallery on the rue de L'Échaudé in Paris, France where he began to exhibit American artists. He showed fo ...

, Avignon, France * 2009 ''53rd International Art Exhibition, The Venice Biennale'', Venice, Italy * 2008 ''Zilvinas Kempinas'',

Kunsthalle Wien Kunsthalle Wien is the city of Vienna's institution for international contemporary art and discourse with two locations, in the Museumsquartier and at Karlsplatz. Kunsthalle Wien does not have a collection of its own, but instead dedicates its c ...

, Vienna, Austria * 2008 ''NOW JUMP'',

Nam June Paik Art Center Nam June Paik Art Center is an art gallery in Giheung-gu, Yongin, in the Seoul Capital Area, South Korea. It opened in 2008 and hosts both permanent and temporary exhibitions. It is named after the Korean American artist Nam June Paik, whose work ...

, Seoul, Korea * 2008 ''New Work: Zilvinas Kempinas, Alyson Shotz, Mary Temple'',

, San Francisco, United States * 2007 ''Parallels/Flying Tape'', Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania * 2007 ''Collected Visions: Modern and Contemporary Works from the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection'',

Pera Museum Pera Museum ( Turkish: ''Pera Müzesi'') is an art museum in the Tepebaşı quarter of the Beyoğlu (Pera) district in Istanbul, Turkey, at Meşrutiyet Avenue No. 65 (adjacent to İstiklal Avenue and in close proximity to Taksim Square.) It has ...

, Istanbul, Turkey * 2006 ''Flying Tape'',

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

, Paris, France * 2003 ''Still and 186 000 mi/s'', P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

, New York City, United States

Selected Collections

, Paris, France * Collection Lambert, Museum of Contemporary Art, Avignon France * Credit Agricole Art Collection, Paris, France
JPMorgan Chase Art Collection
New York, United States
Lewben Art Foundation
Vilnius, Lithuania * Lio Malca Collection, New York, United States *

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...

, Humlebæk, Denmark *

MUDAM The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (french: Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean), abbreviated to Mudam, is a museum of modern art in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, on the so ...

Musée d'art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art), Luxembourg City, Luxembourg *

Museum of Old and New Art The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in the Southern Hemisphere. MONA houses ancient, mode ...

, Tasmania, Australia *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

, Ottawa, Canada *

, Melbourne, Australia *

Queensland Art Gallery The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away. The Queensland Art Gallery ...

& Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia * The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, United States

References

External links

Artist personal website: zilvinaskempinas.com
*

Bitforms gallery bitforms gallery is a gallery in New York City devoted to new media art practices. It was founded in 2001 by Steven Sacks, and represents established, mid-career, and emerging artists critically engaged with new technologies. In September 2014, b ...

Galeria LemeGaleria Vartai
* ttp://vernissage.tv/blog/2009/07/10/zilvinas-kempinas-tube-lithuanian-pavilion-venice-biennale-2009/ Vernissage video and information on ''Tube'' from the Venice Biennale 2009
Drawing in Motion Double O at MoMA 2010

Video of Double O by Zilvinas Kempinas in Art DaysSlow Motion Zilvinas Kempinas at Museum TinguelySculpture by the Sea A View from Zilvinas Kempinas

he process itself becomes an art piece Arterritory Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempinas, Zilvinas 1969 births Living people People from Plungė Lithuanian artists Hunter College alumni Vilnius Academy of Arts alumni Recipients of the Lithuanian National Prize