Photo reportage from the exhibition 'Ruins, Remains, Relics and Still lifes' by Eglė Norkutė at the Rooster Gallery

In her work, Eglė Norkutė explores the contexts of art history, mythology, sites of memory and contemporary media through painting. She is interested in the aesthetics of a work of art, the problems of decorativeness and the function of an art object as a commodity and an embellishment. The artist reflects on the hierarchy of images and things, ponders the differences and ethics of plagiarism and appropriation, and analyses the phenomenon of collecting. Her painting object installations, which interpret the schemes of shop window and/or museum displays, refer to the habits of art consumption. These are images that oscillate between things and their imitations, works of art and their copies.

The painter’s present exhibition enacts a dialogue between personal and global issues. Eglė Norkutė’s recent work is dominated by isolation, motifs foreboding an imminent catastrophe, and occasionally even direct quotes of the pandemic iconography. The seemingly decaying, deformed paintings are the painter’s reaction to the surreal situation in the world that defies common logic. Yet the exhibition title, “Ruins, Remains, Relics and Still lifes”, alludes not only to the lack of certainty and a sense of threat but also to a problematic personal relationship with painting. The artist’s works are characterised by a complicated structure reminiscent of a dismantled puzzle or objects assembled without a manual, as well as chaotic layering of images. Experiencing a sense of confusion in the contemporary situation, doubting the importance of a work of art, she mixes the selected motifs, subjects and imageries, creating unexpected, tragicomic collisions and semantic links.

Eglė Norkutė (b. 1993) is a young-generation painter. She graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts with a Master’s degree in Painting in 2019. Since 2016 Eglė has been participating in group exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad, as well as international arts residency programmes, and has held solo shows. She has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association since 2019. Her work has been distinguished with awards and prizes in art contests. The artist earned an opportunity to hold a solo show at The Rooster Gallery when she won a special award of the Young Painter Prize competition in 2019.

Exhibition will take place in a gallery space in Vilniaus St 24 (entrance from the inner yard of the Radvilas Palace), in collaboration with the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
The exhibition will be open until 30 October.
Opening hours of the gallery: IV-VI 16.00–19.00, VII 14.00–17.00.
You can also schedule your visit by phone +370 629 07226, or email us at info@roostergallery.eu

The Rooster Gallery’s events are kindly supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality

Design: Rita Raziūnaitė
Special thanks: TOPCOLOR