About a year ago, when I first met Marija Rinkevičiūtė-Špakauskė, she was studying painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels. In the space of her studio, I discovered her work: what struck me immediately was the visual power of her paintings and installations, using simple materials and a neutral colour palette. A year later, she asked me to write some words about her work for the solo show she was to present at the gallery Artifex from 28th March until 12th of April.
Silent Seeing
Marija is an artist whose creative process is dominated by painterly expression, although her approach seems to give her work an additional dimension both physically and empirically, creating a certain atmosphere throughout the structure of the exhibition. This creates an environment reminiscent of what the ancient Greeks called genius loci: the aura of a place, or the energies it radiates.
The emotional climate created by the artist is enhanced by compositional decisions such as verticality and the color white (symbolizing transparency, ghosts and mourning in Asian cultures) which talks about existence and forgotten stories that leave traces.
The essence of Marija’s artistic practice lies in the exploration of materials, in which abstract motifs and gestures intertwine with existential overtones. Using wax, plaster, canvas, paper, dust and found objects in her artwork, she creates mysterious imprints, paintings and sculptures. In every work of the artist, no matter how autonomous they are, lies a hidden story that never fully unfolds, creating a latent state which cannot be described, but felt.
Looking at Marija’s works, the viewer often has to contemplate the subtle transparency of different materials, interactions between brittleness and matteness observing the cracks in the surfaces, which are the result of the artists (sometimes) brutal treatment of the canvas, as if breaking up the monochromatic background. The idea of “Silent Seeing” is that of the resting gaze, observing the landscape in silence even if that landscape here is fractured or folded.
Marija looks at a painting as a plane of serendipity, in which the intuitive gesture creates a dialogue with the subtle application of paint. Her work goes beyond the boundaries of the painting medium – she delves into volume, which is an essential element of the spatial arrangement in her works. This is where the depth of her artistic gesture lies. The attention to vision and the questions that accompany it are permeated with the contemplation of silence in which the permanently concealed apparitions live.
This text is a collaborative writing between Thibaud Leplat and Marija Rinkevičiūtė – Špakauskė.
Text editing: Arnas Špaka
Marija Rinkevičiūtė-Špakauskė (born 1993) is a painter splitting her time between Brussels and Vilnius. She received her BA degree in monumental art from the Vilnius Academy of Arts and MA degree in painting from Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels. She has been actively participated in group and solo exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad.
Venue: VAA gallery Artifex, Gaono str. 1, Vilnius (Lithuania)
Exhibition: SILENT SEEING
Date: 28/03/2024 – 12/04/2024
Exhibition supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture
Photos by: LightStrokePhoto (Valerija Semeniuk, Justas Gulbinovičius)