Jonas Gasiūnas, Kaido Ole “Jonas & Kaido II”

The Polish art critic Krzysztof Stanisławski, who curated their previous travelling exhibition, writes: “They have known each other and exhibited together for twenty years, or maybe longer. There is a certain continuity in their activities and from exhibition to exhibition you can see that they fit each other more and more. Paradoxically, they are so different that they resemble each other.”

That is why this exhibition can be seen as the next step on a journey together. Arvydas Žalpys, the curator of this exhibition as well as their previous one, asks: “How has the dialogue between artists developed? What painting language do they speak today? And finally, what signal are they sending to us? With the new paintings at this exhibition, I hope we will find the answers.”

Jonas Gasiūnas (b 1954) is a Lithuanian painter who studied in the Lithuanian State Art Institute. In 1992–2018, he worked in the same school (now named Vilnius Art Academy) as an assistant, lecturer, professor and head of the Department of Painting. One of the most esteemed contemporary Lithuanian painters. Often uses smoke from candles to paint. He last showed his work in Tartu in 2012 at the exhibition “Three Lessons of Painting” (with Paweł Łubowski and Kaido Ole, Tartu Art Museum).

Kaido Ole (b 1963) is and Estonian painter who studied design and painting in the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 1993–2010, he worked in the same school as a teacher of drawing and painting, lecturer, professor and head of the Department of Painting. In 2003, he represented Estonia at the Venice Biennale together with Marko Mäetamm. In 2016–2018, he was one of the first to receive the artist laureate salary of the Estonian Artists’ Association. Ole and Gasiūnas have previously had two joint exhibitions: in 2007 in Vilnius and in 2018 in Kaunas.