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.

Mindaugas Reklaitis’s single-work exhibition MORPH at gallery apiece

What would happen if a house could be rebuilt every month or every day using the same existing materials? If every new house could “learn” and become more and more suitable for its inhabitant, or the two of them shaped each other in a never-ending performance of “measurements and fitting”? Would this lead to better living environments, cities, communities?

On 2 September, the interdisciplinary exhibition MORPH by Mindaugas Reklaitis will open at apiece, a showcase gallery presenting one single autonomous artwork at a time. The main focus point and discussion theme of the exhibition is changing, adaptive and performative architecture. The exhibition aims to go beyond conventional architectural boundaries and, with the help of evolving technologies, enter new dimensions of critical architecture, a discipline that has not been widely practiced in Lithuania so far. The work on display (available 24/7 and viewed through the showcase window) is a device perpetually creating an architectural form in the space of the gallery—a robotic manipulator inviting the viewers to reflect on new possibilities for architectural practice. Using this live-creating device and a supply system of cyclic wax as a material, the author aims to subvert the usual features of architecture, such as stability or materiality, and to speculate on alternative realities of dynamic, performative and variable spatial forms.

The MORPH manipulator will shape—in real time and through cyclical processes—an ever-changing architectural object. In other words, like a living organism, the piece will become a prototype for future architectural scenarios.

At the same time, the exhibition will work as a stimulus for discussions on the future of architecture, involving architects and members of the different parties involved in architectural process. The discussions will take place on Sunday 11 September (3 PM).

Mindaugas Reklaitis is an architect and cofounder of the architecture studio Sprik. He is currently working as an exhibition architect at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, studying for a PhD in art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and researching performative architecture as a critical spatial practice. Besides more than ten years of experience in designing award-winning buildings in Lithuania and abroad, Reklaitis has also been involved in projects organised by various NGOs. Moreover, he has extensive experience working with Lithuanian national pavilions at the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales: in 2018, he was the project manager of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 16^th Venice Architecture Biennale; in 2019, the co-producer and architect of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58^th Venice Art Biennale (the piece won the prestigious Golden Lion); and in 2021, the producer of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

The discussions are organised in cooperation with the Architecture Fund

Communication of the exhibition: Menų Komunikacija

Graphic design: Marek Voida

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

The exhibition will be open from 02.09.2022 to 14.10.2022

The exhibition can be viewed 24/7

apiece gallery presents “The Order of The Spur: These Boots Are Made for Walking” – the artwork by Vytenis Burokas.

The layers of the drawings rest on plaster fragments stuck on a folding screen made from a metal net separated by plastic film. In these drawings, Vytenis’ alter-ego characters, living in fictional stories of the secret society “The Order of The Spur”, appear along typical-to-them iconographic motives: bodies in spurred boots, fragments of plants and animals, imaginary musical instruments.

The artwork allusion to a fresco, which in turn holds a pretension to timelessness, contrasts with temporality of the artwork materials, resembling some building construction site, as well as with the very function of a folding screen: to hide, divide, to isolate. The partial transparency of both the base (the plaster and metal net) and the content (the drawings) evokes the impression of ephemerality and the feeling of temporality.

Although the narrative is embodied in the drawings, the construction itself is more than just an underframe: it invites to follow the details, to scrutinize the materials – their characteristics, to project the tools used for the construction and gestures made by the constructor while “plastering”.

In other words, the artwork manifests itself not only as a visual image, but also as a text to be read in terms of contemporary art language; or embodies the metaphor of a rider in spurred boots, yet with no horse.

Vytenis Burokas (1990) is an artist, a curator, and a lecturer. His field of interest includes the history of arts and culture, everyday rituals, social roles, and the change of the mind-set due to progressing knowledge about our world. The author has been graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts, obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in contemporary sculpture, as well as finishing art pedagogy studies. In 2013-2014 he also took part in an educational program at Rupertas. Works by the artist have been exhibited or performed in Lithuania and abroad.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

Communication of the exhibition: Menų Komunikacija.

The exhibition is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

The exhibition will be open from 19 June to 2 August 2022. The exhibition can be viewed 24/7.

Teal Griffin single-work exhibition “Bardo” at gallery “apiece”

The gallery “apiece”, dedicated to exhibiting a single work of contemporary visual art and/or conceptual design at a time, presents artwork “Bardo” by artist Teal Griffin.

“Bardo”, in Tibetan Buddhism, refers to the transitional or liminal state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth: after death and before “rebirth”. In a sense, it is similar to the transitory in-between space of limbo, if a little more hopeful. Perhaps it is an in-between place of hope and resolve, or else a  general state of uncertainty and anxiety that has been causing us concern lately, given the pandemic, the Russian war against Ukraine and looming threat of climate catastrophe. Or else it might just be the state wherein a small dog person finds itself being held in the air by a balloon.

“Bardo” is a work about the suspension of the physical condition, a grasp at the bodily experience of the lived-in moment in time, and the absurdity of the situation – no matter how big the balloon is, it will not lift into the air even the smallest dog; also, the balloon is suspended, neither going up nor down (and what goes up must come down!). This is the fixed position, a frozen moment, that is theatrically realised in the unique space of the gallery “apiece”, which reminds the artist of the various Natural History museums that he visited as a child, where objects and creatures that are no longer alive are exhibited, posing for the audience in artificial displays behind the glass partitions, encased in a constructed scene between death and rebirth.

In the gallery space, the dog figure levitating between the display windows relates to the artist’s personal experience when he was caring for his family dog, named Zen, in his old age, which became a sort of surrogate for the experience of witnessing his father going through palliative care towards the end of his battle with cancer. The space of end of life care feels outside of regular time, it feels like it has slipped between, life on pause: limbo. The constant care of a loved one, whether a parent or a family pet, became not only a part of everyday life, but also a part of his creative work. According to Teal, the experience was not only sad, knowing of the inevitable goodbye, but was also about love and care, dedication and celebration. These themes are recurrent in the artist’s work, while the juxtaposition of pathos, absurdity and humour is seen as a strategy (perhaps “heaviness” is most effectively expressed through “lightness”).

Teal Griffin – (b. 1988) is a London-born artist whose practice takes shape through a multidisciplinary process of bricolage. Working with sculpture, painting, video, text and spoken word, he makes installations that hover in the quiet pockets of listening and waiting, where the small and still become political tools. 

He completed a MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths in 2018.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic designer: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

The exhibition will be open from 08.05 – 17.06.2022

The exhibition can be viewed 24/7

More about the artist —> www.tealgriffin.com

Rūta Palionytė and Ieva Baranauskaitė’s single-work exhibition “Daydreamer” at gallery “apiece”

The gallery apiece, dedicated to exhibiting a single work of contemporary visual art and/or conceptual design at a time, presents the light object “Daydreamer” by light artist Rūta Palionytė and architect Ieva Baranauskaitė.

“Daydreamer” is a hybrid object of light art and design, visually expressing the physical properties of light and colour. Specially adapted for the “apiece” gallery, it functions as an artificial bridge between indoor and outdoor spaces, providing an opportunity to observe the movement of light: during the day – with changing natural light, and in the evening – with the help of artificial lighting.

The object consists of two biomorphic elements made of dichroic glass and quartz sand, closely related materials that represent time. Quartz sand formed over 50 million years ago due to changing weather conditions and erosion of rocks. It is the basis for the manufacture of glass, with its purpose having been gradually gaining relevance since the Roman times and given even more potential in the new age of technology. Modern dichroic glass is the result of NASA’s research in different materials and is now used in the aerospace industry as well as other fields.

Dichroic glass has special optical properties: it reflects some of the constituent colours of light and is permeable to others. It reveals a fact that we all know but cannot see: white light contains many colours. Thus, a seemingly transparent detail of the work – an element of curved glass – tints the surrounding surfaces with different colours and becomes a brush to create a painting of light.

Inspired by biomorphic shapes, “Daydreamer” pushes the boundaries of our perception of colours and shapes. For the piece, the architectural qualities of the showcase gallery become a playground, and for the viewer, an opportunity to experience the environment in a new way.

Rūta Palionytė is a Copenhagen-based light installation artist and lighting designer with a Master’s degree from the Edinburgh (Scotland). For her, the phenomenon of light and its influence on visual perception, architecture, design objects or natural landscape is one of the main creative sources. Palionytė also collaborates with artists in various fields and has implemented many international projects.

Ieva Baranauskaitė is an architect with a Master’s degree from the Royal Danish Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, and a BA obtained at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. She has gained her professional experience working in renowned architectural offices in Japan (Kengo Kuma and Associates), Denmark (KHR Architecture) and Lithuania (Arches). Currently Baranauskaitė is developing her individual practice and working on various architecture and design projects in Lithuania and Scandinavian countries.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by the LATGA Creative Activities Fund and Vilnius City Municipality.

The exhibition is sponsored by NOHRCON ApS

The exhibition will be open 27 03 2022 to 05 05 2022

The exhibition can be viewed 24/7

More about the project Daydreamer ->

https://www.instagram.com/daydreamer_light_object/

More about the artists ->

www.rutapalionyte.com

www.ib-arch.com

apiece gallery exhibiting a single contemporary visual art and/or object of conceptual design is presenting Nerijus Erminas’ work “Sacrifice”.

Nerijus Erminas’ creative strategy is to construct new works of spatial art by deconstructing various materials, shapes, objects, or their parts. The creative process of this “deconstruction in order to construct” is carried out not only formally but also conceptually, as each of Erminas’ works conveys a multifaceted narrative. On the one hand, such a narrative is associated with the continuation of the tradition of modernist assemblage (not in two-dimensional, but in three-dimensional format), on the other hand, thanks to the integrated socio-cultural context, it is a reflection of the postmodern world.

In the work “Sacrifice” presented at “apiece” gallery, various shapes and materials are placed following a principle that comes close to creating scenography, as the author is delving into connections between things, objects and elements. The parts of the work are scattered across space and do not follow the principal of integrality found in sculpture, but rather engage the viewer in a dialogue with the environment, i.e. the exposition space which becomes an integral element of the work. By creating the conditions necessary for various experiences, the artist provokes the viewer not only to observe but also to examine. Associative links that bind different elements of the work together engage the viewer in an endless spectrum of ritual meanings. As one looks at these different parts of the work while circling around the showcase-type gallery, a certain ritual is performed that is possibly only known to the artist and is based not on rites but on language of contemporary art.

Nerijus Erminas (b. 1976) is a conceptual sculptor who has been participating in exhibitions since 2003 and has been organizing solo exhibitions since 1997. He was awarded the prize for the best sculpture (“Squirrel and Wall”, presented by gallery AV17) at the 2012 contemporary art fair “ArtVilnius”.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic designer: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by the LATGA Creative Activities Fund.

The exhibition: February 25^th – March 22^th, 2022.

The exhibition is open 24/7.

Exhibition “Unsent Letter” by Petras Mazūras at “apiece” gallery

“apiece”, a gallery introducing one contemporary visual art and/or conceptual design piece at a time, presents sculptor Petras Mazūras’s work “Unsent Letter”.

“Nike” (1978), “Man” (1986) or trees “grown” in stones (ongoing since 2001) are well-known works by sculptor Petras Mazūras. Not only the artist’s sculptures and installations, but also he himself has had to go through some challenges of time: the early, late Soviet period of his work focused on the figurative motif, while in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the artist practically gave up on it. According to the artist, “I was simply […] trying to explore the human senses in a different way”.

To this day, the sculptor has maintained his curiosity about the possibilities, treatments and effects of technology and different materials. Mazūras was one of the first to start casting bronze under domestic conditions, to manually grind marble and basalt, and, when conditions allowed, to try out synthetic materials, later turning to self-constructed mechanisms integrating natural objects. At the same time, the artist remained a so-called “image-maker” not promoting artificial mystery. “My works are visible to the eye, what you need to understand the meaning of them is nothing but an interest in art”, says Mazūras.

The sculptural object “Unsent Letter”, specially adapted for the “apiece” gallery, is like an unfulfilled dream unspoilt by reality. A crumpled piece of paper (a sheet of stainless steel) is what remains, nothing more. This and other similar works were begun as a series of works of different materials in 2014. Only a few versions of these “letters” have been realised and are rarely presented to the public.

Petras Mazūras (b. 1949) is a sculptor who has been exhibiting since 1976. His works are found in Lithuanian museums as well as both Lithuanian and foreign private collections.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Exhibition architect: Donatas Laucius

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by the LATGA Creative Activities Fund.

The exhibition will run until February 22^th 2022.

The exhibition is open 24/7.