skupna izložba litvanskih umjetnika / Graphic Art by Young Artists of Lithuania
Graphic Art by Young Artists of Lithuania
The exhibition showcases works by four Lithuanian graphic artists of a younger generation: Augustas Bidlauskas, Linas Blažiūnas, Elena Grudzinskaitė and Laura Selmistraitytė. The four artists graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Art at about the same time and have been actively pursuing their artistic careers ever since: they successfully participate in local and international art projects, their works are willingly acquired by art collectors and museums. What the four artists have in common is a consistent development of themes in their work and excellent technical craftsmanship. The artists represent the tradition of pure graphic art, which is a unique feature shared by several generations of Lithuanian graphic artists. The young artists are also inclined towards experimentation: they choose to engrave images on non-traditional surfaces, transform a plate, go beyond a two-dimensional plane, create graphic installations, often using traditional techniques as an inseparable part of their creative agenda. It is the relationship between pure (traditional) and experimental (modern) graphic art, and the new meanings springing from it that mark out the work of the entire younger generation of graphic artists in Lithuania. The current exhibition is a vivid illustration of this.
Since 2011 the main subject in Augustas Bidlauskas’ work has been the human being. The 2015–2017 series of mezzotints displayed here is no exception. In the series Man he engraves complete silhouettes in solid lines on zinc plates, remaining attentive to details and symbols and the meanings they evoke. The artist employs the language of allegory; his works show a prominent historical and sociocultural dimension and are populated by characters from different epochs and of different social status. With undisguised irony, the artist explores the limits of humanity, probing into human flaws and weaknesses. The faces of the characters are mostly masked, which makes them impersonal, devoid of identity.
Linas Blažiūnas continues to develop nature-related themes in his works, which frequently play with the motifs of nature. The artist keeps looking for new ways of artistic expression, which transform the content of an image and its meaning. His works are permeated with a sense of the ephemeral and the transitory. For example, the installation Two Sides. Two Possibilities of Seeing speaks the language of mystical twilight and shadows. The work was made by using the drypoint technique applied to organic glass. With the help of light, Blažiūnas creates a magical and meditative installation which opens up to the viewer to the extent to which he or she is sincerely willing to delve into the young artist’s fantastical world of nature.
Since 2014 Elena Grudzinskaitė has been making conceptual installations in which she mostly explores landscape, offering its diverse interpretations. Using drypoint, photopolymer and photo-etching techniques, the artist creates abstract landscapes, based on real scenery or, for example, on astrophotographs of the Moon. Avoiding direct geographical references, she conjures up fictitious spaces and in her own inimitable style transforms the real images she has. In her works the artist analyses the philosophical relationships between man, space and time, the impacts of meaning that they have on one another, the boundaries between them: the link between an individual and some place, the individual’s influence on a landscape and its change. The artist emphasises the limits of everything, questions the reflections of the human mind about reality and fiction.
Laura Selmistraitytė remains faithful to the woodcut technique and uses it conceptually. Since 2012 she has been making large-sized prints, characterised by nuanced colours and a clear composition, intertwined with a multi-layered photographic image. The artist has always been interested in the processes of art making: one print is created by applying the same plate several times, while each time the plate is ritualistically incised deeper and deeper. This way the artist not only produces a special physical surface of a print and its likeness to the object portrayed, but also creates a new object (inspired by the prototype), investing it with other meanings. The print Cloud /176 becomes a literary and direct hint of the cloud that figuratively hangs over the exhibition. The print consists of separate map-like segments that make one recognisable unit; these segments allow us to perceive the object as a whole and the individuality of its fragments. According to the artist, the cloud encourages us to think that the core of any object or matter is made up of multiple segments, but human knowledge and our thinking are discontinuous, so many of these segments remain incognizable to us.
Translated by Daina Valentinavičienė
Curators: Kristina Kleponytė-Šemeškienė, Jurga Minčinauskienė
Organizer: Vilniaus Graphic Art Centre
Sponsors: Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, Lithuanian Council for Culture
Since 2011 the main subject in Augustas Bidlauskas’ work has been the human being. The 2015–2017 series of mezzotints displayed here is no exception. In the series Man he engraves complete silhouettes in solid lines on zinc plates, remaining attentive to details and symbols and the meanings they evoke. The artist employs the language of allegory; his works show a prominent historical and sociocultural dimension and are populated by characters from different epochs and of different social status. With undisguised irony, the artist explores the limits of humanity, probing into human flaws and weaknesses. The faces of the characters are mostly masked, which makes them impersonal, devoid of identity.
Linas Blažiūnas continues to develop nature-related themes in his works, which frequently play with the motifs of nature. The artist keeps looking for new ways of artistic expression, which transform the content of an image and its meaning. His works are permeated with a sense of the ephemeral and the transitory. For example, the installation Two Sides. Two Possibilities of Seeing speaks the language of mystical twilight and shadows. The work was made by using the drypoint technique applied to organic glass. With the help of light, Blažiūnas creates a magical and meditative installation which opens up to the viewer to the extent to which he or she is sincerely willing to delve into the young artist’s fantastical world of nature.
Since 2014 Elena Grudzinskaitė has been making conceptual installations in which she mostly explores landscape, offering its diverse interpretations. Using drypoint, photopolymer and photo-etching techniques, the artist creates abstract landscapes, based on real scenery or, for example, on astrophotographs of the Moon. Avoiding direct geographical references, she conjures up fictitious spaces and in her own inimitable style transforms the real images she has. In her works the artist analyses the philosophical relationships between man, space and time, the impacts of meaning that they have on one another, the boundaries between them: the link between an individual and some place, the individual’s influence on a landscape and its change. The artist emphasises the limits of everything, questions the reflections of the human mind about reality and fiction.
Laura Selmistraitytė remains faithful to the woodcut technique and uses it conceptually. Since 2012 she has been making large-sized prints, characterised by nuanced colours and a clear composition, intertwined with a multi-layered photographic image. The artist has always been interested in the processes of art making: one print is created by applying the same plate several times, while each time the plate is ritualistically incised deeper and deeper. This way the artist not only produces a special physical surface of a print and its likeness to the object portrayed, but also creates a new object (inspired by the prototype), investing it with other meanings. The print Cloud /176 becomes a literary and direct hint of the cloud that figuratively hangs over the exhibition. The print consists of separate map-like segments that make one recognisable unit; these segments allow us to perceive the object as a whole and the individuality of its fragments. According to the artist, the cloud encourages us to think that the core of any object or matter is made up of multiple segments, but human knowledge and our thinking are discontinuous, so many of these segments remain incognizable to us.