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The 1st Minsk International Exhibition of Graphic Art ‘Art-liniya’ (‘Art-line’) was opened in the gallery of the National Library of Belarus. There are over 160 different graphic works of Belarusian, Austrian, Italian, German, Armenian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish and Estonian artists on display. The exhibition has become one of the most important representations of contemporary art’s trends in graphic and printing. Participants are both young artists and eminent European masters.
The executive sponsor of the project, the chairman of the International artists’ guild Fyodor Yastreb explains that the exposition is not dedicated to any topic – it’s more like an overview of the contemporary European graphic art. Also the contest of artworks preceded the display. The International Jury members - artists and art critics from Serbia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Italy - awarded 20 artists with a diploma. The first prize went to Katarzyna Krochek from Poland.  Katarzyna Krochek. Creation of the World IV. Digital printing, 66cm x 90cm, 2005
“Such an exhibition has been organized for the first time in Belarus. It will be interesting for the wide audience because it represents a particular stratum of European graphics. At the same time Belarusian artists can get to know new tendencies and break the borders of their habitual environment”, emphasizes Fyodor Yastreb. “In particular, one of the recent tendencies is digital printing and such works are shown. In addition to that there are number of works made in traditional technique, for example, etchings”.
“There is a rich diversity of artists and their artworks are very different – from mini-prints to one-meter-high pieces. All this variety makes up the phenomena which we call “graphics”, remarked the Belarusian graphic artist Roman Sustov, who presented semi-phantasmagorical etching Foundation – another interpretation of the image of the Tower of Babel. Besides Roman Sustov, Belarus is represented by Lyubov Abramova, Tamara Shelest, Vladimir Davgyallo, Kamil Kamal, Pavel Kastusik, Ivan Semiletov and Yuri Yakovenko.
The sponsors plan to organize such international forum annually. It’s expected that the representatives from Japan and Turkey will join next year. Current exhibition is through June, 5.
Text and photos posted in www.nlb.by (the website of the National Library of Belarus) and belapan.com. 
 Roman Sustov. Foundation. Etching. 15cm x 17cm. 2007  Ivan Semiletov. Shadows. Mixed media, digital printing. 34cm x 34cm. 2007-2008  Kamil Kamal. Ship of Fairytales. Lithograph. 50cm x 66cm, 1997  Yuri Yakovenko. Plumbum. Etching, photo polymer. 21cm x 14,5cm. 2007 |
