Eglė Pilkauskaitė’s single artwork exhibition “Soil Surface #2”.

On February 19, E. Pilkauskaitė’s exhibition opens at “apiece”, a showcase-style gallery strategically focusing on autonomic artistic expression. Artist’s work attaches great importance to the surrounding environment and to places affected by processes of exclusion and decay. Materiality also plays an important role in her work. These are craft-oriented materials, adapted using various technologies and methodologies, including researches into different textures and use of textures in which they are not imitated but rather reflected upon.

“Soil Surface”, exhibited at “apiece” gallery, is a new version of the work, in which the imprint of the soil is cast in concrete slabs. According to the artist, it aims to make sense of the value of (the) “earth” being turned into an exhibit, and of the issues relating to the Anthropocene, all the while highlighting the importance of man’s physical relationship with nature.

– Eglė, was the choice of material affected to the showcase-like space of the gallery or was it motivated by other reasons? Also, what do you think is the relationship of contemporary (urban) person to nature (specifically to earth), and why is it important for you to make sense of it in your work?

– The idea of the work does relate to the location of the gallery. It is located in a little park in a rather busy area, marking a stretch of Čiurlionis street, leading to the city’s largest park, Vingis Park. The object displayed at the gallery becomes a kind of boundary marker between the industrial and recreational spaces of the city. The casting of a direct earth imprint in concrete creates a deliberately misleading allusion to the surface of the now fashionable organic material. The human relationship with the earth tends to remain consumerist, from the cultivation of exotic plants at home to large-scale building projects. Concrete has become the second most consumed material in the world after water. For this work I have chosen a form that can become a kind of pedestal for the contemporary search for a balance between man and nature.

– In your work, you often make use of objects found in various places to convey the beauty of decay. You have previously indicated that you are interested in questioning social norms of beauty and aesthetics. Why is it important for you to balance the line between beautiful and ugly in your work?

– I’m interested in why something is attractive to one person and not to another. The process that determines our aesthetic choices is extremely interesting. I try to look at aesthetics through a social perspective.

Eglė Pilkauskaitė lives and works in Vilnius. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London in 2014 with a BA in Drawing. Since 2016 she has been actively participating in exhibitions and art projects in Lithuania and abroad.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Communication: Menų Komunikacija

Graphic design: Marek Voida

Exhibition  partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality

Exhibition open from February 19 to March 31 2023

Exhibition can be viewed 24/7

More about artist: www.pilkauskaite.com 

1/3 of a Second, a single-artwork exhibition by Misshapen, at apiece gallery

Starting from 12^th January, a conceptual design exhibition by MISSHAPEN, titled 1/3 of a Second, will be hosted at apiece – a gallery strategically focused on autonomic artistic expression. It was Misshapen that featured apiece during its opening exhibition in 2018, when the gallery was still located in the oldtown of Vilnius (Didžioji St.). Then, a hand-made porcelain object from the very first MISSHAPEN collection was showcased. The artwork to be presented now is explained by Milena CM, the author behind MISSHAPEN, as follows:

One third of a second encodes an impulsive choice or an unreasoned human act. It’s a moment of an unconscious decision; a moment that requires no efforts. On the contrary, this amount of time is even impossible to be consciously noticed. It is thought that 95% of decision-making brain activities are unconscious, and only 5% of them fall within the field of our consciousness. According to neuroscientists, it is obvious, and normal, that many actions we take are unreasoned and environment-driven, or – so to say – out of our understanding. It is by no means a negative thing though, as we simply could not function otherwise. This phenomenon is sometimes called an intuition that is said to be responsible for our unconscious, but right decisions. And what I doubt today is the very concept of “right decisions”. Thus the exhibition title, and the third Misshapen collection itself, refer to both my research in consumer behavior and the artwork that coronates it: the crown.

I have spent more than a year digging into what actions are possible to be taken – or, more precisely, refused – during these 313 milliseconds. The purpose of my 1/3 of a Second artistic research – that included numerous fields, such as neuromarketing, consumer behavior, trends, personalized design, and neuroscience – was to answer the following major question: why, and how much, do we consume today, and what could be done differently, more consciously.

In the process of the research, I have concluded that ethical values of jewelry are more important to me than aesthetical ones. The latter, by the way, change and fade away very quickly, together with trends, fast consumption, and a human desire to own yet more and more. That’s why the collection speaks for immoderate consumption rather than importance of jewelry aesthetics.

Why did you choose a crown as your single collection object?

The crown has been created while rethinking the historical aspect and roots of jewelry, as well as my own perception of importance of jewelry today. I designed it as a collection of artefacts, where the history and natural elements – such as shells, tree branches, nails, and horns – intertwin with what they are meant to protect from: witches, snakes, and demons.

A crown is a historically significant symbol of luxury, power, and a status. To ironize certain “royal” facts – that’s why I chose a crown as a symbol to sum up my artistic research, for the MISSHAPEN crown embodies the other side of the history of jewelry, it cannot be acquired, or owned.

MISSHAPEN It is a signal. The one sent by pairing together a human body with a unique on-body object. Loose in form but strong in message, MISSHAPEN handmade objects may require a body full of open-yet-sure personality. Well. That is the way your signal breaks through the ordinary glamour noise.

MISSHAPEN emerged out of the idea that beauty of jewelry should not be framed or reflect traditional aesthetical values. As the idea evolved, the litteral meaning of “misshapen” transited from the level of matter to the one of approach – so MISSHAPEN could be our perception of what is beautiful, and what is not, rather than just slightly weird jewelry. Today, it is an approach to misshapen consumer habits that questions the impact of neuromarketing to our unconscious desires and emotion-based decisions to act, i.e. to buy.

The curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

The communication: Menų Komunikacija.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

The exhibition will be open from 12 June to 17 February 2023. The exhibition can be viewed 24/7.

More about apiece: www.apiece.lt

More about MISSHAPEN: www.misshapen.eu

The single-artwork exhibition LIGHTS, by Saskia Fischer

LIGHTS is an installation of six hand-made neons floating inside apiece gallery. The illuminated sculptures possess an organic, bulbous, and feminine formal language, resembling phosphorescent vermicular creatures. The coloured borosilicate glass tubes contain the inert gases neon and argon. The contrast between the glass tints and the electrified gases creates a vibrant, animated visual effect. 

In public spaces, vitrines typically function as communication devices or advertising. However, since the advent of modernism, governments and economic powers have systematically restricted the meaning of ‘public’ by excluding female and queer identities. LIGHTS affirms a renewed celebration of plurality to characterize our shared, collective spaces. It offers everyone a beacon of optimism and joy through the city’s darkest months.

Saskia Fischer (Germany) is an interdisciplinary artist working with images, objects, texts, and environments. Her research is concerned with the paradigms that form and inform landscape as a reflection of cultural and social values. This research is expressed through photographs and installations synthesizing diverse media blending materials and motives from architecture, gender studies and art history. Saskia studied postgraduate fine art at Goldsmiths, University of London (2018), photography at Folkwang University in Essen (2015), and sculpture/installation at Estonian Academy of Arts (2014). 

The exhibition is open: November 25^th, 2022 – January 8^th, 2023.

Visitors are welcome 24/7.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

Communication: Menų komunikacija.

Exhibition is funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

Exhibition in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Lithuania

The single-artwork exhibition Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Just a Little Smile, by Remigijus Praspaliauskas, at the apiece gallery

The author of the first emoji – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis?

It is symbolic that the first retrospective exhibition of paintings by M. K. Čiurlionis – who is considered as a representative of symbolism – was opened in London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) on September 22^nd, 2022 – more than a century (!) after the painter’s death… Obviously, the painter, and a composer, acknowledged as the national pride and the most remarkable Lithuanian artist ever, is not known enough internationally. So, maybe the fact that Čiurlionis possibly is the author of the first – and most popular – emoji could help popularizing his artistic legacy?

This theory about the emoji of a smiling face is based on a single fragment of a drawing found in one of Čiurlionis‘ sketchbooks. This fragment, transformed into a contemporary wall carpet, will be exposed at the single-artwork gallery apiece, where the exhibition by Remigijus Praspaliauskas, titled Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Just a Little Smile, opens on October 20^th, this year.

All kept at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art in Kaunas,  more than one Čiurlionis’ sketchbooks exist. Although the drawing in question has never been transformed into a painting, more similar sketches – featuring lines waving together into some ornament – were drawn by the author in the period of 1907-1908. The drawings of this type are thought to possibly fix theosophic thoughts.

The reconstruction of the drawn fragment into the contemporary artwork by R. Praspaliauskas invites to wonder, if the original emoji was some kind of “message” left by Čiurlionis to us – the generation of social networking. Or was it a painter’s vision of the future, where people communicate using emotion icons rather than words? As the artwork has been partly inspired by the location of the gallery, situated on M. K. Čiurlionis street, its exhibition is a contemporary way to commemorate Čiurlionis‘ legacy, as well as to fulfil the name of one of the most beautiful streets in Vilnius.

Remigijus Praspaliauskas – a lyrical Samogitian gangster – is an author of texts, objects, and products. His creative practices focus on the search for surrealism rooted in words and illogical verbal constructs of the Lithuanian language, as well as in the very nature of an image. Together with his twin brother Egidijus, Remigijus is behind the well-known Egyboy fashion brand dedicated to “shake that dull reality”.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Communication: Menų komunikacija.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is open: October 20^th – November 22^nd, 2022.

Visitors are welcome 24/7.

The exhibition is funded by Vilnius City Municipality.