Akvilė Malukienė
Artist's country of origin: Lithuania
I am Akvilė Malukienė, an artist living and working in Vilnius. I graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts, Bachelor of Painting in 2013. and this year in 2020 I graduated with a master’s degree in painting. What is important to me is the choice of the creative material itself, which determines the creative process and the inner need within me to experience creativity as strongly as possible.I also believe that a lot of information is encoded in the material itself. In a way, I feel like I’m working with fossils. Probably, that explains why I like artists like Anselm Kiefer, Jean Dabuffet, Louis Borges, Kazuo Shiraga or Pierre Soulages. They are dominated by a strong aspect of materiality, processiveness, corporeality, which also responds to my tendency to experiment with various materials. I perceive the image and its creation very bodily, sensorily, the image is like a second skin, an extension of the body. And this sensuality is for me a way for the world to perceive and unfold as a woman- artist. For me, the physical birth of a painting is an act of “grounding” that speaks of the soil- woman archetype. As a result, instead of the usual brush, I take a plow my paintings with it. Instead of paint – clay. When I want to glue and tear off the cosmetic masks from myself in an even more intense creative process, it reminds me of the act of self-unmasking, and when that is no longer enough I start cooking tar. Creativity becomes an act of creation, act of domination. Exhibitions: 2020 – CONTRACT ARGUMENT, Art Park Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania 2018 – WHAT DO ARTISTS WORK ALL DAY ?, Artists’ Union Gallery, Vinius, Lithuania 2013 – INFOCENTRAS, Bokšto str. 14 BUNKER, Vilnius, Lithuania 2013 – TRACKS OF ART, DIC Titanic, Vilnius, Lithuania 2012 – JATROPHOBICS CORRIDOR, VU, Vilnius, Lithuania 2012 – THREE YEARS AGO, ONE REMAINING, SHOW MAKERS Academy, Vilnius, Lithuania 2011 – YOUNG PAINTERS FOR JUSTINA VIENOŽINSKIAS, Rokiškis District Museum, Rokiškis, Lithuania 2011 – HAIRDRESSER, Art Park, Kaunas, Lithuania Solo exhibition: 2019 – DEATH IN VENICE, Kalnas, Vilnius, Lithuania