Group Painting Exhibition “Find the Only One”
In August 2024, the group painting exhibition “Find the Only One” featured the works of Konstantinas Gaitanži, Jonas Gasiūnas, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Jolanta Kyzikaitė, Ričardas Nemeikšis, Eglė Ulčickaitė, and Tomas Valeika.
In one of his most famous paintings, Caravaggio depicted an intimate scene—Narcissus, shrouded in darkness, gazes at his only reflection in the water. Just as the glassy surface of the water returns Narcissus’s dark image, he, enchanted by his own gaze, becomes trapped in an endless loop of longing. What he desires is himself, yet he cannot reach himself.
Some believe that Narcissus can be seen as the inventor of painting. Just as every painter tries to look into the rippling surfaces and see themselves, their time, place, and environment, they are also devoted servants to illusion. Each painting attempts to captivate and become a bewitching surface of water, enchanting the observer.
However, today’s Narcissus, deeply asleep from the excess of reflections, dreams a nightmare. He dreams that the clear water, once captivating with its reflective power, slowly begins to deteriorate into a thick, muddy mass. Now, he gazes not at a smooth water surface but at an indifferent swamp. He sees his reflection dispersing into scattered glints, absorbing into a surface that shows nothing. He no longer longs for himself but for the very act of longing.
Dreaming the same Narcissus nightmare from which there is no waking, the exhibition brings together representatives of different generations of contemporary Lithuanian painting. Each artist searches for ways to preserve the dreamer’s alertness, utilizing the treacherous, viscous medium in their own unique way, experiencing the hot, crumbling, and increasingly sinking gaze. What poisons here becomes the very expression. For some, this solid shapeless mass becomes the glue binding the canvas; for others, it appears as trembling bodies, blind spots, or disintegrating airy forms. Some seek the right burning temperature, tonal and color relationships that reflect the lukewarm state of numbed sensations.
Instead of seeking quick forms of anesthesia, succumbing to the intoxicating ease of imitation and the automatism of constantly replicating images, these artists strive for a much fiercer sleep and a more relentless illusion. Here, it takes on materiality, continues to seduce, and still seeks to be unmasked. For ultimately, it belongs to those who, in Walter Benjamin’s words, do not cherish any illusions about their era, yet, despite everything, unconditionally embrace it.
For if dreams come true and Narcissus truly becomes blind, what is left for him but to find solace in dreams of the only one?
Brigita Gelžinytė
