The Illuminator

The Illuminator

€1.200,00
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The Illuminator
  • The Illuminator
  • The Illuminator
  • The Illuminator
  • The Illuminator
The Illuminator

The Illuminator

Dzelde Mierkalne

etching, 2025. mezzotint, cotton paper.

35,5 x 45,5cm. Edition 1/3, framed like in the picture.

Referencing traditional depictions of medieval manuscript scribes and illuminators, “The Illuminator” plays with the idea of those who produced books as the original “content creators,” particularly in the wake of Gutenberg's press, which in its own way marked the beginning of mass media and its eventual oversaturation. Both inspiring and, perhaps, the beginning of the seemingly doomed state of the world as we know it, the naive-looking character is drenched in an anxiety of impending apocalypse, illuminating the mark of bookmaking on the history of humanity.

Made in tandem with “Cradlecodex42”, a scagliola inlay piece that reconstructs the Gutenberg 42-line Bible, the first printed book of the West. Both works were originally exhibited in the 19th Tallinn Print Triennial in 2025.
€1.200,00

Dzelde Mierkalne

Dzelde Mierkalne’s (b. 1997, Latvia) practice unfolds between doom and delight, reflecting existential fears through a post-ironic sensibility shaped by growing up amid overlapping crises.

Mixing drawing, prints, sculpture, and objects, she constructs playful yet unsettling environments where pop culture, ecological anxiety, and mass psychology collide. Humor becomes a survival strategy rather than escapism, a fragile counterforce to numbness and catastrophe.

Central is her use of scagliola — a historical imitation marble technique whose unpredictable patterns evoke faux interiors where fantasy compensates for loss. Her latest solo exhibition “Ingress XP’’ was held in The Rooster Gallery, Vilnius. In addition to solo and group shows in Riga, Latvia, Mierkalne has also participated in international exhibitions and forums, including the group exhibition “Gen Z. All at Once’’ in Mo Museum, Vilnius, Tallinn Art Hall, The Distillery Gallery in Boston, Lethaby Gallery in London, Garage Gallery in Prague and others.

Photo: Kristine Madjare

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