D. Bilkštienė’s distinctive style formed during her studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The artist’s paintings display unexpected, mysterious, surreal scenes full of gentle humor. The painting style is reminiscent of photorealistic or poster pop art painting.
“I have been very focused on creativity for the last few years, so I am very happy to finally be able to present the results to the general public after a long break,” said D. Bilkštienė, adding that almost all the works in the exhibition Everyday Life, Simply. have not been shown live yet.
According to art critic dr. Vidas Poškus, the situations in Dovilė’s paintings are extraordinary. The reality that we perceive does not exist in D. Bilkštienė’s works. Everything is regulated by carnival logic. What seems real turns out to be fictitious. Absolutely impossible things become real. The characters here are “normal” flamingos, ducks (mallards), puppies, tigers, bears, and people engaged in all kinds of activities. From parachutists or marathon runners to just passersby. It is unclear which of them look “more normal”, or rather more bizarre. Animals lost in the city streets (but feeling comfortable enough) or people wandering around and seemingly looking for something. There is sometimes more anxiety and surprise in their faces and gestures…
According to the art critic, D. Bilkštienė is a painter directly inspired by images. Dovilė’s eyes, brain, and hand capture almost everything that surrounds her. It can be a look from the balcony of your own home, a fragment of a bathroom, a street view, a glimpse through an airplane’s window. The artist absorbs the visible things.
“Dovilė Bilkštienė, as the title of this exhibition formulated by herself points out, is inspired by nothing but everyday life. However, according to V. Mykolaitis-Putinas, it can be noted that “under the ashes of everyday life, hot ember smolders… In the case of Dovilė’s painting, those embers could be said to be unexpected motives and situations, as if dreamed up or constructed by means of surreal automation. The author then only has to frame them purposefully, paint them correctly, and sighing: “Everyday life, simply…” show them to the public,” – said art critic dr. V. Poškus.
Dovilė Bilkštienė’s exhibition Everyday Life, Simply. will run from January 11 to 28 at the gallery Meno Niša.
The sponsor of the gallery is Vilnius City Municipality.
Art critic dr. Vidas Poškus about the exhibition Everyday Life, Simply.
Dovilė Bilkštienė is a painter directly inspired by images.
Let’s try to figure this out. First, what does “images” mean? It means that the most important thing in the artist’s creative tactics is the “visible field, sight” (this is how the concept of image is defined in dictionaries). Dovilė’s eyes, brain, and hand (we’re talking about the three most important instruments of a modern painter) capture almost everything around her. It can be a look from the balcony of your own home, a fragment of a bathroom, a street view, a glimpse through an airplane’s window. The artist absorbs the visible things. Let’s check what “simply” means. It means that D. Bilkštienė experiences and investigates images directly, immediately, clearly, and vividly. Her painted compositions look as if illuminated by bright midday sun or like powerful halogen lamps. Even at night, dazzling stars shine in the sky’s vault, and bright moonlight blinds one’s eyes. Third, the painter, as the name of the exhibition suggests, is inspired by nothing else than everyday life. The latter contains everything but is dominated by ordinarity, routine, overly familiar images and rituals, as well as cultural stamps that we know only too well. However, according to V. Mykolaitis-Putinas, it can be noted that “under the ashes of everyday life, hot ember smolders…” In the case of Dovilė’s painting, those embers could be said to be unexpected motives and situations, as if dreamed up or constructed by means of surreal automation. The author then only has to frame them purposefully, paint them correctly, and sighing: “Everyday life, simply…”, show them to the public.
D. Bilkštienė is an illustrator of situations and characters.
The characters here are “normal” flamingos, ducks (mallards), puppies, tigers, bears, and people engaged in all kinds of activities. From parachutists or marathon runners to just passersby. It is unclear which of them look “more normal”, or rather more bizarre. Animals lost in the city streets (but feeling comfortable enough) or people wandering around and seemingly looking for something. There is sometimes more anxiety and surprise in their faces and gestures…
The situations in Dovilė’s paintings are extraordinary. Even counter-ordinary or sur-ordinary. Here, encounters and states take place in the brightness of dreams, in the mist of reality. The reality that we perceive (usually also called routine ordinariness) does not exist in D. Bilkštienė’s works. Everything is regulated by carnival logic. What seems real turns out to be fictitious. Absolutely impossible things become real. Hallucinogenic rainbows and subconscious bubbles become accessible by hand, felt by touch. The processes, as already mentioned, are bright. Brightness is one of the author’s essential plastic and ideological categories. The painter does not hide herself or anything else in the shadows. The latter are continuations of intense light.
As for the sur-ordinarity of the artist, it should be noted that it is perfectly possible to localize its epicenter. D. Bilkštienė is an artist from Antakalnis. Considering the fact that she lives there, it is worth noting that this place of Vilnius, one of many districts of the capital, in its contextual intertwining (Soviet apartment blocks exist symbiotically next to the masterpieces of Baroque architecture, the long and dismal highway crossing the entire part of the city contrasts with the green hills of Sapieginė, and the young and slightly simulated middle class representatives show off their new apartment blocks and shiny cars, acquired by leasing, in front of the endangered species of Mohican, the Soviet intellectuals), is particularly contrasting, colorful, and diverse. All this is reflected in D. Bilkštienė’s work by the method of reflection. But the painter doesn’t undertake social criticism, cultural analysis. With her eyes wide open, she watches and captures this. And states: “Everyday Life. Simply.”
Once upon a time, art critic Barbara Hess, writing about Andreas Gursky (by the way, his concept of color, motif, and structure is somewhat close), stated that he is “a photographer in the age of globalization.” The same can be said about Dovilė Bilkštienė. Yes, the Antakalnis landscape or some of Lithuania’s visual icons may appear in her rectangular formats, but the field of action of her characters and the contexts of situations are universal (like dreams or other somnambulant states) – streets and courtyards, apartment living rooms and bedrooms, even sanitary units. These are compositions dedicated to nomads of today – physical and mental, in which they feel at home. And no matter where in the world or at what stage of the depersonalized time it is. The author stops time by capturing the location, and time is common and unmanageable only to those who surrender to it (but definitely not to the mentioned image creator!)
From a purely formal point of view, the plastic instruments of D. Bilkštienė reveal not only the brightness and purity of the color but some pure innocent painting of it. The artist touches the surface of the canvas with a brush very carefully, very subtly. It is reminiscent of intimate teenage girl diaries, whose authors shudder themselves when they write their secret thoughts, their sweetest dreams…
This exhibition presents new and latest paintings by Dovilė Bilkštienė.
