The project “Jolanta Kyzikaitė. MASKARADAS,” funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, took place throughout 2021. It was a four-part exhibition cycle hosted at Vilnius Town Hall, the Klaipeda Cultural Communication Centre Exhibition Hall, the Šiauliai Art Gallery, and the Panevėžys City Art Gallery.
About the Exhibition:
Jolanta Kyzikaitė describes the concept of the exhibitions:
“It is not necessary to depict masks in painting to reveal relationships. I am interested in the situation itself—how physical (through masks or self-isolation) withdrawal from public life affects relationships with people and the surrounding environment. By examining the present, I try to foresee the future. I am interested not only in the mask itself but also in what is hidden beneath it. The word ‘under’ refers not only to a specific place (under a stone, under a mask) but also to time (after quarantine, after a financial crisis). The relationship between place and time is more important now than ever,” says artist Jolanta Kyzikaitė.
“Jolanta Kyzikaitė has been developing the theme of games in her work for almost a decade, from depicting various childhood games to the game of painting itself. By choosing and analyzing the game ‘Hunt,’ which involves disguises, animals, and the player’s cunning imitation of various animals, Jolanta touches on the themes of carnival, ‘fur’ transformation, and disguises. Disguising oneself, embodying animals, or other characters is one of the most popular childhood games, where the rules are either instinctive or created during the game, depending on whether one is an animal or a hunter.
In her paintings, Jolanta Kyzikaitė not only portrays her world of fantasies or, more precisely, reality filtered through the artist’s vision but also masterfully engages the viewer, who becomes a co-player, guided by intuition and creating the rules of the game.
Despite the not-so-positive mood of the quarantine, Jolanta Kyzikaitė once again used irony, giving meaning to place and time, and invited viewers to play, participate in the masquerade, and immerse themselves. In her works, we saw forest, domestic, and exotic animals, as well as people and various masks: of joy, sadness, anger, and fear. The artist’s goal is to divert attention from reality and immerse in the atmosphere of the masquerade. As Jolanta Kyzikaitė states, she does not like the image of the sad painter, as her suffering remains in the studio. Thus, the exhibition and interaction with the visitor inherently put on another mask and invite celebration,” says art critic Sonata Baliuckaitė.
Project Partners: Gallery “Meno niša,” UAB “Plasta,” Klaipeda KKC Exhibition Hall, Panevėžys City Art Gallery, Šiauliai Art Gallery
Photos: Vyto Nomado
