ArtVilnius Contemporary Art Fair, organised by the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association is the only art fair of its type in the region. It prides itself in its universally democratic nature. As such, ArtVilnius’s main objectives are not limited to only the stimulation of the Eastern and Northern European art market but also the presentation of a representative panorama of contemporary art galleries. Hence, while the 15th edition’s thematic focus was on Northern Europe, the fair featured works of 67 contemporary art galleries and 15 art institutions from 14 countries, with guest artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, France, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, the Netherlands, and more.
Run between October 4th and 6th, ArtVilnius aims to establish an international dialogue between contemporary art museums, institutions, and curators, and showcase the best galleries and the best artists while expanding the circle of those interested in contemporary art. With such an inspiration in mind, our editors visited this year’s fair.
Here are the artists that caught our attention, offering captivating perspectives on contemporary art in the region:
Vita Opolskyte
Vita Opolskyte, born in 1992, is a painter of the young generation. She studied painting at the Karel de Grote University College in Antwerp (Belgium) and completed her painting studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2017. She was a finalist and 2nd prize winner of the international competition Young Painter Prize (2015). She has held several solo exhibitions in Lithuania, Belgium and Germany, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, artistic projects and workshops. Opolskytė is also active on the Lithuanian art scene as an exhibition curator and art critic. Her works are held in the collections of the Lewben Art Foundation, MO Museum, and private collectors.
In her paintings, Vita Opolskytė combines fragments of real interiors and surrealistic elements, creating visually misleading, alogical and irrational spaces, where customary and strange objects lie around, and human figures appear. Inspired by the so-called Alice in Wonderland syndrome, the painter combines different scales of the represented interior objects and figures, directions of perspective and vantage points. Opolskytė implies certain details of a literary narrative by visual hints. Those recognisable eloquent elements provoke the viewer’s memories and invite them to get involved, emphasising the psychological and emotional suggestion of the represented situations. Her fragmentary compositions combine individual mythology and universal symbols, intimate personal and general cultural experiences. While analysing the collisions of inner and outer reality and the ensuing conflicts of intimacy and publicity, the artist both sensitively and ironically visualises the anxieties, traumas, and small and big dramas caused by contemporary tensions. Often emphasising female experiences, she offers an authentic and open view from the female perspective. Her works become both the artist’s diary of sorts and a collective portrait of the entire generation.
Vita Opolskyte’s works were presented by The Rooster Gallery.
Sigitas Parulskis
Sigitas Parulskis, born in 1965, is a Lithuanian poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, and translator. He majored in Lithuanian Language and Literature at Vilnius University. Parulskis works include several books of poetry, two books of essays, two short story collections, five novels, and several plays. A winner of several literary awards (e.g. the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize, Zigmas Gėlė Award, Kristoforas Award, Bank Austria Literaris). While his writing is known for provocative language, allegories of the condemned and the saints, and beauty in the brutality of life, photography is a new and still little-known territory of Parulskis’s work. He got interested in artistic photography in 2019, following the publishing of his book “Double-Bottom Passengers”. Digital photos supplemented with texts came to be the motivation to take pictures more consistently.
“AP galerija” noticed Parulski’s pictures and invited the writer to exhibit them in Užupis. As a result, the exhibition “Dragging the Heaven” offered an opportunity to review his works from 2020–2023. Due to its special dramaturgy, whichever image you focus on – a cross, a sheep or a dilapidated Soviet factory, it doesn’t take long to feel the throbbing typical of Parulski’s point of view, shrouded by black and white colours, other contrasts, ironic, sacred and earthly reflections of existence. A confluence of photography and literature.
We saw Sigitas Parulskis’s work at the AP galerija booth.
Sandra Strēle
Sandra Strēle, born in 1991, is a young Latvian painter. In 2016, she graduated with an MA in painting from the Art Academy of Latvia, where she also earned her PhD in 2024. She also studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A recipient of scholarships from the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation (2012), SEB Bank (2016), and Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (2019, 2021), and a winner of the Brederl von Sengbusch Art Prize (2014). A winner (2019) and finalist (2017, 2018) of the Young Painter Prize competition of the Baltic States. Since 2013, she has been taking part in group exhibitions, workshops and residencies in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, France, Germany, and elsewhere, and held several solo shows in Latvia and Lithuania. Her works are held in the collections of the Noewe Foundation and the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
In her work, Strēle draws on the tradition of landscape and architectural landscape. Her large-size paintings and painting installations represent remote, alienated, lonely spaces and their architectural structures. The artist is fond of creating narrative cycles of paintings. Each newly created story is a sequel of the preceding one – it is a kind of TV series whose characters never grow old but are affected by time – by the premonitions of the future, imaginary scenarios of the future, and alongside, by the reflections and memories of the past. The analogy with film series is not accidental. The painter’s creative method seems to be based on cinematic logic when the narrative is developed frame by frame. In Strēle’s cycles, one painting follows another, but all of them are subject to time, which seems both real and abstract all at once. Strēle’s paintings are characterized by an unexpected structure and an original visual logic, which confuses the viewer’s gaze by the discrepancy of different scales, contrasts of precise, rational, free and surreal shapes, complicated perspectives, and manifold intersections of spaces and planes. Her paintings are often marked by melancholy and nostalgia. The intense emotion of the works is further enhanced by the artist’s favourite large format, which allows the viewer to experience the work not only emotionally, but also sensuously, to immerse and get absorbed by the work rather than remain a passive observer.
Sandra Strēle’s works were presented by The Rooster Gallery.
Toon Berghahn
Toon Berghahn, one of the most respected Dutch painters, was born in 1970 and has etched his name in the world of art. A graduate of Aki Enschede and Rietveld Akademie, Berghahn held his inaugural exhibition in 1998. The artist’s exploration of modern spaces, spatial and bathed in light, adds another dimension to his portfolio. Despite the prevalence of empty space, human presence is palpable through fixtures and fittings. These vibrant and bright compositions, adorned with exuberant furniture like pianos, bookshelves, and sofas, create a subliminal sense of comfort. Ethereal light remains a prominent tool, illuminating the paintings and adding to their comforting allure. Whether it be through the warm glow of glass chandeliers or the radiant sunlight on a summer day, Berghahn’s art invites viewers into a place that feels like a memory, simultaneously comforting and subtly evocative. The use of a darker palette for nature reflects the artist’s concern about the uncertainty of nature in the face of climate change. His distinctive technique involves painting on MDF boards, enabling him to layer thin coats of paint while maintaining a smooth texture. Additionally, he employs carving on the MDF surface, creating shadows and depths within the painting’s motifs. This unique approach allows him to convey a distinct feeling through his art.
Toon Berghahn’s works were presented at the Galleri NB booth.
Tuomo Vuoteenoma
Tuomo Vuoteenoma, born in Oulu, lives and makes kinetic art & performative sculptures in Joutsa, Finland. He’s also the Artistic Director and Founder of KITA. With a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lapland, Vuoteenoma’s professional career involves mechanical drawings and design, avant-garde music, and art events organisation. His method is playing – playfulness is also innate to living beings, which, at the same time, is not always tolerated in most professional environments. Vuoteenoma believes in art serving both creative problem-solving and questioning functions, and asks – could the art making be compared to the need for sleep? In a daydream, a person simulates challenging situations in the waking world, while the artist simulates the dream in the real world and sometimes makes it happen in reality. Vuoteenoma says that if the basic conditions of life are met, art is a way to make life meaningful and perhaps makes it possible for the world of ideas to be interconnected and strengthened. Such ideas are visible in his work with art extrapolating systems of observed facts into utopias and making philosophical viewpoints more perceptible, using fingertips, all the senses, and the unaware intuition as tools. He works through a mixed waste method, as his artistic ideas are usually inspired by discarded material, cultural layers, and absurd social circumstances.
Tuomo Vuoteenoma’s works were presented by KITA – The House of Kinetic Arts.
Anna U Davis
Anna U Davis was born in 1975 in Lund, Sweden, now lives and works in Washington DC. For her, art serves a dual purpose – it is a vehicle to express her socio-political views and a coping mechanism. As a young child, she would create pictures to manage emotions, and as an adult, her art practice helps her to deal with the long-term side effects of breast cancer treatments. Early on in her artistic development, Davis decided to break down the human form into basic geometric shapes and lean on expressing her characters’ emotions through abstracted exaggerated placements of their facial features and body parts. The artist’s signature grey Frocasian characters were inspired by her interracial marriage. Her husband was born to a Swedish mother and an African American father in Lund, Sweden, and while they both grew up in the same town and went to the same school, their life experiences have been very different due to the colour of their skin. Davis has spent most of her career creating work investigating social justice issues, focusing primarily on gender relations.
Her first artist love was the fearless Frida Kahlo and her unapologetic storytelling and how she challenged social norms. Anna also fell in love with the bold black outlines of Keith Haring’s work, the striking collages by Romare Bearden and the organic structures of Antoni Gaudí. All of these artists have served as an inspiration for the development of her artistic style, combining multiple mediums on canvas, including acrylic paint, hand-cut paper collage, ink drawing, pumice, and appliqué textiles.
Anna U Davis is represented by Davis Gallery.
Obou Gbias
Obou Gbais, also known as Peintre Obou, born in 1992 in Guiglo, in the west of Ivory Coast, is a contemporary Ivorian artist. After gaining his artistic diploma, he joined the University of Fine Arts in Abidjan in 2014, which he completed with his Master’s Degree in 2019. During his studies, he experimented with many styles before finding his artistic writing. The themes he deals with in his work are the slums and the condition of human beings, which are the results of the politico-military crisis in 2002. His paintings often present crowds – a way for Obou to pay homage to all those people who were victims and who still live today in these precarious places. Another theme that he deals with in his works is the representation of women and their realities of life. An inspiration came from his mother and sisters, who believed in him and supported him when he started with art. Today, Obou presents himself as an ambassador for his culture, of which he wears his Dan mask loud and clear and incorporates it into all his creations to tell the stories around him.
At the ArtVilnius, audiences had the rare opportunity to witness the full creation process of “Le bisou d’Obou”—a new piece completed before their eyes. The live performance offered viewers an intimate look at Obou’s artistic technique and creative process, adding a dynamic layer to the fair’s celebration of contemporary art.
Obou Gbais is represented by TUMO Gallery.
Paweł Orłowski
Pawel Orlowski (born 1975) is a High School of Fine Arts and Sculpture Faculty on the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow graduate and holds a PhD in Art. He also studied at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under the direction of Prof. Karlheinz Biederbick. The search for an original style began during his first international exhibitions in Berlin and Bonn in 1999. At that time, he presented gypsum casts, as well as small bronze sculptures, which initiated his work with this material. Works depicting the human figure, also exhibited then in Germany, became the focus of his artistic interest. The language of transformation and transfiguration of the human body ultimately resulted in the elimination of realistic representations in favour of synthetic, cubic forms, a style recognisable to the artist. A laureate of Polish and international awards and distinctions. He took part in more than 50 art projects, exhibitions and symposia around the world. His oeuvre is highly recognised by authorities in the art world.
Ołowski creates his projects on a small scale as well as in the form of large-sized sculptures. He is both engaged in didactic and scientific work. In 2018, he received a postdoctoral degree in Visual Art Studies. He is associated with the Department of Visual Arts and leads the Sculpture Studio at the Department of Industrial Forms at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. In his works, he attempts to confront the past in such a way as to create a contemporary meditative space on the subject of transience and the impact of time. The narrative aspect is increasingly noticeable in his works.
Paweł Orłowski’s works were presented by Van Rij Gallery.
Ona Grigaitė
Ona Grigaitė graduated in ceramics from the present Vilnius Academy of Arts, and in recent years has been concentrating on solo exhibitions, like “Nothing new in our forest” (2016), “Sunset” (2020), “And where is the fawn?” (2023). The artist’s work combines qualities of sculpture and painting, while the engaging narrative poses seemingly simple questions that are not so easily answered. In her recent exhibitions, the artist draws attention to small, inconspicuous works, giving them meaning and significance. She uses earthy tools – brown clay and glossy glazes – to give her works a fleshiness quality and, with a slight irony, to carve a narrative in which everything is turned upside down and the sublime explodes.
Ona Grigaitė is represented by VDA Artifex Gallery.
Andrius Makere Makarevičius
Andrius Makere Makarevičius, born in 1982, lives and works in Vilnius. In 2005, the artist graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University with a Bachelor’s degree in Art. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association, and since 2024 – the chairman of the painters’ section of the Association. In 2019, together with Inga Mrazauskaitė, he founded the artistic movement “SinThesis Gang”. He has held over 30 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 40 group exhibitions, and, in 2019 and 2022, was awarded an individual grant from the Lithuanian Council for Culture twice.
His work reflects the complexities of contemporary issues, intertwined with the unique fragments of life from my surroundings – its raw energy, diverse stories, and everyday realities. By slightly altering certain details, these scenes take on new meanings, often transforming into more humorous or ironic reflections. His creative process is a blend of current events, the vibrant and gritty aspects of his environment, and his personal experiences as an artist. These elements fuse into a singular, multifaceted whole. Rather than offering simple illustrations, his art embraces layers of meaning. It invites the viewer not to seek definitive answers but to leave with more questions.
At the ArtVilnius’24, the solo exhibition of Andrius Makarevičius presented by GODÒ galerija received the jury award for “TOP 7 GALLERIES”.
Laisvydė Šalčiūtė
Laisvydė Šalčiūtė creates paintings, drawings, prints, artistic objects, installations, photography, and literary texts. The founding idea of Šalčiūtė’s art is that our feelings are shaped culturally – we “learn” them. Such emotions mould individual human beings and guide their social actions, influencing their intuition, sensations, and experiences. In her artwork, the artist recreates reality by revisiting the cultural and social context, inspired by her authentic emotional response to it. Her art is self-ironically emotional and inter-textual. The artist explores the phenomenon of post-emotionality of the nowadays Western world.
In the cycle of artworks “Bestiary”, Šalčiūtė interprets the Anthropocene era, in which we all live, through the prism of medieval bestiaries and Renaissance cabinets of curiosities. In our epoch, humankind has become a radical force that alters not only its own but also other lifeforms’ fate and structure. Šalčiūtė approaches this phenomenon (self-)ironically, as an expression of human POWERLESSNESS rather than human power. In these works, she tells stories of ECO-ANXIETY. Šalčiūtė questions and ironically visualises the binary of CULTURE VERSUS NATURE, provoking the viewer to ponder the paradigms of politics, war and biophilosophy. She encourages the viewer to consider a non-hierarchical appreciation of all forms of life and the possible ethical, moral and artistic interdependences it entails.
Laisvydė Šalčiūtė is represented by Baroti.KADS galerija.
Selection of artists: Justyna Trojanowska, Contemporary Lynx Team
Contemporary Lynx Magazine is media partner of Art Vilnius 2024.
