FEBRUARY ART EXPRESS 0
In brief: February was grim: the list of Kaunas exhibitions to be visited was not very long and the author did not have enough time to see everything. The author did not visit the exhibition of the duet of Rimvydas Jankauskas–Kampas (1957-1993) and Rolandas Karalius at Aukso Pjūvis gallery and the jubilee exhibition of Kazimieras Žoromskis (1913–2004) "Vibration of Colour" at M. Žilinskas gallery.
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The exhibition "Landscapes" of Eugenijus Varkulevičius–Varkalis was open at Žalgiris arena until the end of February. The cycle painted in 2011—2012 did not surprise visitors acquainted with works of the artist most probably. Varkalis searches for inspiration in the flowing water, river banks, forests and other corners of nature for several years already.
The feeling that one sees a fragment of infinity, its pars pro toto appears when looking at works of E.Varkulevičius. Even though the artist distances from certain particular places (be it Čepkeliai, Confluence or another place), the colours of paintings repeat shades and moods typical of certain places or months, and the artist‘s works may be called fragments of cosmos, subconsciousness and maps of associative thoughts.
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The painting exhibition of Aušra Barzdukaitė–Vaitkūnienė "Constant Views" was open in Vilnius recently. Meanwhile, the artist presented the cycle of paintings and drawings "4 Stories" at Kaunas A.Žmuidzinavičius Memorial Museum. The exposition was divided into four segments due to spaces of the museum. The artist observes the environment, turns to personal memories and asks questions about actual themes in four stories: "The Terrible Story", "Story about Aliens", "Intricate Love Story" and "Story about Water". The artist explores the themes with snappiness typical of her, and several characters known from other works of the painter may be found in the showcased works.
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Like every year, the biggest February event in the life of Kaunas exhibitions is the election of the best artwork of the year. The exhibition The Best Artwork of the Year is criticised, disparaged and is still visited by more people than any other exhibition at Kaunas Picture Gallery. The principle of freedom cherished by the exhibition organisers when artists bring their works without any genre, theme or artistic value restrictions affects the quality of the exhibition: many works of low value performed in unprofessional manner reach halls of the gallery. Some of such works were present in the exhibition of this year, but the good mood of February 16 and the entertaining part of the exhibition (voting, communication, awards, etc.) made the exhibition attractive.
Attention of evaluators was drawn by the textile work of Ona Staskevičienė "There are Some Days", the historical canvas of Pranas Griušys "War Dogs", sculpture of Marijus Petrauskas "Beginning", the TV and axe ready-made object "Protest" of Sigitas Straigys, the conceptual work about conceptuality "Drawing" of Rolanas Stankūnas this year.
The painter Alonas Štelmanas and artist Elena Balsiukaitė–Brazdžiūnienė were noticed in the exhibition for the second year in sequence. The triptych of A. Štelmanas "Autumn in Park" spread some melancholy, loneliness and rain. Meanwhile, E. Balsiukaitė–Brazdžiūnienė presented the canvas "Don‘t Tell to Anybody" from the series of teenagers‘ portraits.
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Curiosity lures the author to Fluxus Ministry. This time traces of existence were left in corners of the old factory by eight contemporary artists. Still, banal photographs, exhibitionist drawings in the exhibition "Factory Wall No. 1934", naive decorative search for harmony and other works hidden in niches of walls did not cause big aesthetic feelings. The boring situation was livened up by the sculpture "Express of the Week" by Algimantas Šlapikas. Another wonderful discovery of the walk in cold was the photographs of Martynas Plepys "Sand to the Sky..."
