On May 8 at 6 p.m., (AV17) Gallery will open Rimantas Milkintas’ latest solo exhibition, Detachment.
While Rimantas Milkintas’ work employs a postmodern visual language, the purity of his expression often invites comparison with modernist masters from Lithuania and abroad. His sculptural practice combines open structures and symbolic forms with a strong sensitivity to spatial dynamics and viewer presence. Using materials commonly found in contemporary architecture – such as steel beams and plywood – alongside found objects, each bearing its own history, recontextualised as artefacts of the present. His practice places particular emphasis on the dynamic relationship between the work, the exhibition space, and the viewer – who is often drawn into an intimate, reflective dialogue on the essentials of human experience and culture.
In Detachment, Milkintas presents his latest sculptures, installations, and ready-mades, exploring the conceptual break between individual elements and the whole. These works examine not only the physical disconnection of sculptural parts and their relationship to the surrounding space, but also the conceptual dissonance between thought and object. Known for his minimalist aesthetic, Milkintas now introduces symbolic overtones verging on the surreal, evoking meanings that rise from the subconscious.
His ideas unfold through materiality and process: rusted metal acquires its own distinct palette, while cutting techniques yield unique forms and textures. Working with reused construction materials and found objects, Milkintas deliberately distances them from their original contexts – yet their link to the past never fully disappears. His preferred medium, steel beams, becomes a tool for formal experimentation as well as introspection, bridging personal reflection and broader meditations on the self. The exhibition invites viewer to engage not only with the formal tensions embedded in the works, but also with the psychological and existential gaps they quietly expose.
Rimantas Milkintas (b. 1977) studied at the Telšiai Higher School of Applied Art (1995–1999) and completed his BA and MA at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (1999–2005). He has held more than fifty exhibitions and has shown his work in Germany, China, Italy, Belgium, Finland, and many other countries. In 2005, he received the NORD/LB Prize for his installation Stable and Flexible, followed by the 3rd Prize from the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation (2006), Best Sculpture/Installation at ArtVilnius’11 (2011), and the Lithuanian Artists’ Association Gold Badge in 2020 for his contributions to public sculpture and installation art.
Detachment will be on view at the (AV17) Gallery, Totorių str. 5, Vilnius, until 13 June.
The project is funded by Vilnius City Municipality.
