Urtė Lagunavičiūtė ^{Emerging artist}

Artist's country of origin: Lithuania

Urtė Lagunavičiūtė was born in 1999 in Vilnius, Lithuania. She studied in the reinforced art class at the Vilnius Tuskulėnai Ginazium. From an early age she was inclined towards the arts. She first graduated from the Balys Dvarionas School of Music, majoring in piano, but after deciding to connect her life with visual arts, she enrolled in 2014 and graduated (2018) from the Justinas Vienožinskis School of Art, where her work with stained glass began. As a result, she chose to study stained glass and enrolled at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2018, graduating with a BA in 2022. In these studies she was able to fulfil her desire to learn about the glass material and to acquire basic practical and theoretical knowledge. The artist says that she chooses glass material by chance: “I choose glass material to convey social issues that violate individuals and their freedom. Glass is the perfect material to reflect opposing qualities such as fragility and strength, transparency and opacity, aggressiveness and calmness.” During four years of her undergraduate studies, the artist has strived to be productive, curious to study, know and understand. She has exhibited and participated in exhibitions. She has had two solo exhibitions (“The Matrix of Water”, “Surface Tensions”) also participated in group exhibitions that have gone beyond the glass material and used other means of artistic expression (e.g. “Manifesto. Be kaukių”, the artist wrote a manifesto and created its visuals). During her four years at the Academy, Urtė took advantage of the opportunities it offered and participated in workshops with artists from abroad. Participation in workshops, exhibitions and events gave her the opportunity to broaden and deepen her practical and theoretical knowledge of glass materials. The artist goes beyond formal tasks and experiments with new materials, going beyond traditional stained glass. In her current work, the artist aims to create spaces that merge with the glass installations she presents. The aim of her work is to make the viewer a part of the art, to evoke feelings and emotions in line with the chosen theme. She is currently enrolled in the MA stained glass programme at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Site Specific. She is planning to have a couple of exhibitions in the near future. However, she is also looking for international recognition and is interested in all possibilities to develop and cultivate her art beyond Lithuania.