Virginijus Kinčinaitis is best known for his role on the other side of the visual spectrum—not as a creator, but as a researcher. However, delving into Kinčinaitis’s art history scholarship reveals that he has long been haunted by images, intrigued by their behavior and impact, ultimately leading him to craft his own responses. In this exhibition, Kinčinaitis steps away from his usual role as curator and writer to present himself as a photographer or a visual storyteller. “SUBLIME” is a collection of associative photographic images that the artist has compiled over several years purely for his own pleasure.
The images might have remained a side project, showcased only on Kinčinaitis’s social media profiles and appreciated by a dedicated fan base, were it not for the interest of art historians who recognized the striking and practical operation of various visual theories. Art anthropologist and prominent art historian Erika Grigoravičienė first pointed out that Virginijus Kinčinaitis’s photography is profoundly impactful and worthy of separate discussion. After years of advocating for an exhibition, her request has finally been realized.
Kinčinaitis’s collection of images and their grouping reminds me of the unique method used by the brilliant cultural theorist Aby Warburg (1866–1929) to understand images. Warburg would intuitively arrange images from different historical periods into groups that revealed unseen intercultural threads or surprising connections. Today, similar operations can be performed by advanced virtual systems, but they cannot experience the world as a human does, especially not with the talent for vision and insight that Kinčinaitis possesses.
In photographing, Kinčinaitis does more than capture; he immediately interprets the image. For him, images are rarely raw, primordial, or empty. His vision is imbued with cultural context, repetition, memory, and previously imagined experiences. Each figure, whether a baby, a nude, or an elderly person, has a prototype in painting, drawing, sculpture, myth, or poetic vision. Each flash of light or shadow of an old house has a meaningful counterpart. Therefore, Kinčinaitis’s images approach language signs, from which he once fled, but retain their experiential layer. Ghostly images are transformed, changed, and morphed: statues disturb with living era or decay, a pillowcase with a leopard head – with the grandeur of an ancient symbol, and nearby images reveal each other as words reveal meaning in a poetic line. The unexpected meanings provoke a gasp.
Although each presented image is layered with past images, meanings, and cultures, there is no sense of the desperation that some artists feel, fearing that “everything has already been done, there is nothing left to create.” On the contrary, Kinčinaitis’s rich world of images fosters spatial thinking, a sense of the complexity of global connections, and expands the understanding of commonality. This means it connects humanity and speaks a universal language! Finding analogies between images that differ in context and structure provides a sense of world logic, and thus security. With such abilities, Kinčinaitis could be a great manipulator or an ideologist’s dream worker—a dangerous person. However, his masterful articulation of images reveals wisdom, a zest for life, and most importantly—a good sense of humor. And that changes everything—following Kinčinaitis’s world of images is an irreplaceable pleasure, in every single image and in groups, hoping that it never ends.
Art Historian Monika Krikštopaitytė
