Contemporary Painting. PostEvolution

Two countries, two exhibitions and one panorama

Lithuanian – Polish contemporary painting project “Contemporary Painting. PostEvolution“ has two exhibitions. Exhibition of Polish painting „The first person singular” was presented by Warsaw gallery „WizyTUjąca” and curator Leszek Czajka. Exhibition of Lithuanian painting „PostEvolution” was presented by Klaipėda Culture Communication Center and curators Ignas Kazakevičius and Vidas Poškus. The project took place from 16 July to 15 August, 2010.

Striving for impartial representation of the contemporary art trends typical not only in Lithuania, looking for common parallels and at the same time highlighting contrasting authors and artworks, the Lithuanian curators put an emphasis on Poland, as the country, which had similar problems in the development of modern art, but more artistic freedom and a longer period of evolutionary momentum. On the other hand, till this project launched, the modern Polish painting has not been presented yet in conceptual profile in Lithuania. Curator Leszek Czajka selected some of the strongest Polish painters of the young and middle generations. 17 authors and artists’ groups represented various Warsaw galleries. In Klaipėda the Polish curator presented a rather wide panorama of changes that took place in the Polish painting over the past two decades, ranging from classical strokes to street art, from video to poster, comics, from interpretations of the classical school of Polish painting to the “eurostandard”, popular among younger generation. The project has shown considerable changes in the visual language of middle-generation Polish painters, illustrating its evolution from a pure painting to interdisciplinary approaches. Presenting the works of the younger generation, the curator emphasized the trend of intergenerational continuity, when the young artists explore the horizons discovered by senior ones two decades ago, while the “classics” engage into youthful experimentation.

The aim of the Lithuanian part of the project (the exhibition “PostEvolution”) was to present those Lithuanian artists, whose artworks can no longer be considered as the direct interpretation of the expressionist school, as traditional teacher – student evolution, i.e. those, whose works nourish on a wide variety of external influences, follow various trends, that in the Lithuanian context seem as if developed from themselves. According to curator Vidas Poškus, ten authors do not represent entire panorama of the two decades. This is an attempt to make probes, surgical incisions, to highlight the most characteristic features. It should be noted that, on the one hand, ,,eurostandard” and, on the other hand, orientation towards much wider context are intrinsic attributes of all ten selected authors; that is indicative of the end of a certain evolutionary stage and involvement in a new one.

The participants of the exhibition „PostEvolution”:
Žygimantas Augustinas, Monika Furmanavičiūtė, Agnė Jonkutė, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Jolanta Kyzikaitė, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Irma Leščinskaitė and Florian Gruber (Austria), Saulius Paliukas, Eglė Ridikaitė, Justinas Vaitiekūnas.