Melnikova Alina
Recognition. Don’t Kiss Me, I Can Do It Myself, video performance, 2007
By kissing my own reflection in the mirror, I liberate myself from the imposed position of the woman as a subject under observation and proposed identities and behavior models. Through the lip marks left on the surface of the mirror I invite the viewer to identify with me, just as I do it in the process of kissing my own image.
Kissing workshop for women during the performance festival Performance Fiesta in Finland
The main activity of the workshop – kissing – was inspired by my performance Recognition. Don’t Kiss Me, I Can Do It Myself. It was the starting point of my collection of narcissistic nudes.
Miss You, Miss Me, oil on canvas, 2010
Eliminating One of the Similar Items, oil on canvas, 140 x 95cm, 2010
Find Your Button, oil on canvas, 140 x 95 cm, 2010
My personal resolution to resist being arranged, graded or marked compels me to choose a creative strategy that is more like a dashed line of chaotic trajectory that allows all kinds of u-turns than the dominant double separating road marking line.
Studies, scholarships, awards
2008 – MA in Painting, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania
2005 – Studies at the Miguel Hernandez University, Elche, Spain
2011 – State scholarship of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
2009 – Young Painter Prize 2009, 3rd place
2008 – Nordic Council of Ministers’ Sleipnir grant for creative work in Finland
2007 – Nordic Council of Ministers’ Sleipnir grant for creative work in Finland
Major exhibitions
Solo shows
2012 Circumstance of the Place: The Beauty and the Beast, St. John’s Street Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2005 Stories 35, Raum 35, Vienna, Austria
Group shows
2012 Lithuanian Art 2012: 18 Exhibitions, CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania
2011 Baltikum.Tides of Change, HangArt-7, Salzburg, Austria
2010 From Artists’ Workshops, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2009 For Human Rights Without Censorship, Graphic Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
New Prospect, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
Embodiments, Graphic Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
2008 PasiJos, international exhibition Kaunas in Art: Contexts, Architects’ House, Kaunas, Lithuania
Elephant Bullet, KUMU Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
Performance Fiesta, performance festival, Tampere, Finland
Painting exhibition Carmin, Tulips&Roses gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
ANEW, e[hibition of Lithuanian contemporary art, bwa City Gallery, Bydgoszcz, Poland
2007 (In)visible, former printing house, Vilnius, Lithuania
Keywords of Creative Practice
In my works I explore the shift in the categories of identity and the problems of visual pleasure.
Artists I Admire
Rebecca Horn, Sarah Lucas, Vanessa Beecroft