Young / New Graphic Art. (Hi)stories

On May 30th – June 23rd, 2023, exhibition Young / New Graphic Art. (Hi)stories will be on display at VGAC‘s Kairė-dešinė gallery. The opening will be held on May 30th, 2023, at 6 PM.

Young / New Graphic Art is an ongoing project in its second year, focusing on the younger generation of graphic art creators and the growing contemporary printmaking scene, encompassing both traditional printmaking solutions and the relationship between the graphic image/phenomenon and the interdisciplinary field. Together with the Vilnius Academy of Arts and the Department of Graphic Art, the VGAC presents the works of three graduates of the Graphic Art Bachelor programme: Marija Gabrielė Karputė, Augustė Verikaitė and Matilde Solgaard Utsen. Their graduation projects – art installations are linked by the concept of (hi)stories. Through various artistic means, the authors explore individual experiences, the not far 20th century and the times of prehistoric communities, social life, intergenerational connections and interactions, and stereotypes prevailing in society. Using visual storytelling, the artists are finding out the principles of how the global world works, proposing possible scenarios for future living.

Marija Gabrielė Karputė’s installation Blankets. Blankets are home objects. They surround the everyday, are passed down through generations, safely kept in the closets of homes and cabins. Although often we associate blankets with the mundane, in this series of drawings, their essence becomes sacred – blankets protect, hide, envelope us in sleep. In the subconscious, they become an inseparable part of life. In this series, I fragment the blankets of my home, their patterns follow a common, unifying narrative of a story. Before recreating their ornaments, I smooth out the paper with my palms and pastels. Through this cyclical repetition of the meditative gesture, I seem to bring softness to the works. The tender pastel paper becomes a blanket, once I work in the ornamental details. Blankets lead a horizontal narrative without a culmination. It is like a unifying symbol that speaks of universal togetherness, the silent history of humanity. The installation is the author’s final BA project in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Prof. Kęstutis Vasiliūnas.

Augustė Verikaitė’s installation Dowry is an art research project, consisting of a series of silkscreen prints. The main motif – sewing pattern – is reflected in the exhibition as an artefact that marks the collective and personal stories of women workers. Here, a seamstress’s drawing pulled out of a dusty drawer becomes an heirloom that analyses the kinship between fabric, clothing and status, between women’s labour and dowry, between the archaic and the industrial. This artistic research rethinks the stereotypical association of women with crafts. Here, printmaking is interwoven as a conscious and important technique, as the main means of replication and creation related to craft and the handmade. Dowry is an associative representation of visual culture that touches on our notions of identity, gender, work and culture. A return to the handmade and craft, a search for the connection between the object (sewing pattern) and the person, is used by the viewer as a way of cultivating social empathy. The installation is the author’s final BA project in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Assoc. Prof. Jolanta Mikulskytė.

Matilde Solgaard Utsen’s creative project The Tree is a picture book, which consists of a series of black and white illustrations, done with the printmaking technique linocut. In the story, two children receive a seed from a tree, which has recently been cut down, and are asked to plant it somewhere safe. The fall of the tree in the story, can be seen as a representation of the collapse that our societal and political systems are facing.
The main considerations of the project is to show the process of natural transitions in our world, how they lead to something new, and that what we see as destructive and final, is not necessarily entirely negative. The Tree’s goal is to find a balance between harshly describing the crisis our society is facing, and telling a warm, comforting story. The end result is a book, which shows the transition of the world through the eyes of children, who in their detachment from the cruel, societal structure, are protected from its downfall. The installation is the author’s final BA project in Graphic Art at Vilnius Academy of Arts, supervised by Prof. Rimvydas Kepežinskas.

* The exhibition is a part of 2023 VAA graduation project show.
* The exhibition is a part of the festival Kultūros naktis programme: on June 16th, during Kultūros naktis the artists and the curator will meet with the visitors of the exhibition. For more information about additional events, visit the VGAC Facebook page.