Kęstutis Kasparavičius, Creator of Miraculous Stories

On May 21 – July 20, 2024, an exhibition "Kęstutis Kasparavičius, Creator of
Miraculous Stories" will be on display at Vilnius Graphic Art Centre’s Kairė-dešinė
gallery. The opening will be held on May 21, 2024, at 6pm.

This retrospective marks the anniversary of Kęstutis Kasparavičius, acting as a congratulation
to an inventive and laborious member of the artists’ community. The show could well be
titled with a word conceived by the author himself – Kasparatory: it is the artist’s creative
territory and laboratory where illustrations and characters inhabiting books and readers’
minds are born. In his work, the artist stays true to one field – book art; he has created
illustrations for many children’s literature classics (Bürger, Milašius, Andersen, Hoffmann,
Collodi and others), illustrated poetry books, and discovered the nonsensical aesthetic, which
would become his trademark feature, while creating illustrations for Edward Lear’s book.
Having illustrated books by various authors, Kasparavičius eventually dared to write himself,
and currently is the author and illustrator of as many as 20 children’s books. His illustrations
are closely related to the text – like a book director and set designer, the author fills them
with witty characters and situations. The target audience of his tales includes children and
adults equally, while the effect of the books is exceptionally therapeutic and lasting: they have
raised several generations of Lithuanian children and fans of his work.

The children’s book illustrator and writer Kęstutis Kasparavičius has created and
illustrated 63 books. His books have been translated to more th at 20 languages. He finished
the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in choir conducting in 1972, and graduated from Vilnius Art
Institute with a degree in industrial design in 1981. The first book illustrated by him was
published in 1984. The year 1990 saw him receive recognition abroad, when he won the
Golden Pen award in Belgrade, while in 1993 he was named UNICEF Illustrator of the Year at
the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Kasparavičius’ 1989–2010 illustrations were selected for
the Bologna Children’s Book Fair exhibition. He also took part in the Bratislava Illustration
Biennial numerous times, and in 2016 held his first exhibition abroad, A Conductor With a
Brush, at the Art and History Library in Bologna. The artist was nominated for the Astrid
Lindgren Memorial Award and the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times. In 2010 he
received the Jānis Baltvilks Prize, an international children’s literature award for the Baltic
Sea countries, in 2019 the Lithuanian Government Art and Culture Award, and in 2020 the
Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.

* There will be meetings with the author and the curator, educational activities for children
during the exhibition. The exhibition is part of the "Culture Night" festival program. More
information about all events will be published on graphic.lt and VGMC social media
accounts.

Programme of events

18 June 4-5 pm. Autograph Day. Fans of Kęstutis Kasparavičius’ work are invited to bring books illustrated/written by the author and get his autograph! There will also be an opportunity to chat with the author and ask questions.

On 20 June at 5 pm. A meeting and a guided tour of the exhibition with the author Kęstutis Kasparavičius and the exhibition curator Jolita Liškevičienė

26 June, 4-5 pm. Autograph Day. Fans of Kęstutis Kasparavičius’ work are invited to bring books illustrated/written by the author and get his autograph! There will also be an opportunity to chat with the author and ask questions.

During the exhibition period, we organise guided walks with an educator for groups of schoolchildren and adults (contact: info@graphic.lt, +370 5 261 1995)