Audit, the solo exhibition by Reinis Lismanis at the Gerald Moore Gallery, continues the artist's investigation of everyday processes, labour, and the materiality of image-making, while contemplating notions of quality, success, and failure in both art and daily life. The show's title draws on the etymology of the word, which originates from the Latin "auditus," meaning "a hearing." In contemporary usage, an audit implies a systematic examination or review. For Lismanis, this concept of "taking stock" became literal as he moved studios, offering an opportunity to reevaluate the methods and materials present in his creative practice. Audit runs from 12th September to 12 October 2024. The private view is on Thursday 12th September 2024 from 6 - 8pm.
Lismanis broadens his repertoire of techniques, combining inkjet ink, spray paint, printed imagery, and repurposed advertising banners to create new works on canvas. This approach reflects his interest in giving new life to discarded or previously rejected materials and exploring the ephemeral nature of commercial image-making. A crucial aspect of this new body of work is the artist's experimental approach to printing on canvas. Using an old inkjet printer, Lismanis folds and forces larger canvases through the device, embracing the unpredictability and serendipitous outcomes that arise from this process. This method embodies his fascination with the intersection of intentionality and chance in art-making, while also serving as a metaphor for navigating constraints in both artistic and quotidian contexts.
The imagery Lismanis selects for printing relates to quality control, which itself alludes to broader notions of success and failure. By reproducing elements such as colour calibration patches and alignment marks from common items like milk cartons and biscuit boxes, the artist transports these details into an altogether different realm - an aesthetic one. This gesture not only blurs the boundary between the mundane and the artistic but also prompts a reconsideration of value perceptions.
Interspersed among these abstract forms are more recognisable images: a concerned figure from an IKEA manual, serving as a humorous yet poignant reminder of the anxieties and struggles present in everyday life. These elements, combined with blocks of pure colour, create a visual language that is simultaneously familiar and disorienting, mirroring the complex interplay between routine and uncertainty in modern existence. The introduction of these identifiable elements marks a shift in Lismanis' practice, incorporating more personal aspects of everyday life into his artistic explorations. This integration further emphasises the interconnectedness of art, daily experiences, and broader societal structures.
Through Audit, Lismanis continues to challenge conventional narratives surrounding artistic production and value. By embracing imperfection, chance, and the aesthetics of the ordinary, he invites a reassessment of one's relationships with success, failure, and the beauty of the incidental and commonplace.
Reinis Lismanis (1992) is a Latvian artist based in London, UK. He has held solo exhibitions at Exhibition Hall Arsenāls, Latvian National Museum of Art and LOOK! (Riga), Brockley Gardens and no format (London) and Brighton CCA: Dorset Place (Brighton). His works have been included in group presentations at Zuzeum Art Centre (Riga), KAI Art Center (Tallinn), Benaki Museum (Athens), National Library of Latvia (Riga), Riga Photomonth and Riga Photography Biennial, Fotopub Festival (Novo Mesto), Galleria SP3 (Treviso) and FUGA (Budapest). Lismanis has published two monographs – Trial and Error (Skinnerboox, 2019) and T6031_T6061_T8001 (NoRoutine Books, 2019). Lismanis studied at the University of Brighton and Birkbeck, University of London. He currently teaches photography at the Camberwell College of Art.
