Vanda Padimanskaitė’s exhibition, “DURYS” (“The doors”), is currently being showcased at the Bernardinai Gallery in Vilnius, Lithuania. The exhibition features a collection of the artist’s latest paintings, all created between 2022 and 2023. The exhibition space itself is designed in a diagonal manner, leading the viewer on a journey through a multitude of doors, both metaphorical and physical, which offer glimpses into the multilayered landscapes and the creatures that inhabit them.
What is particularly striking about this exhibition is the careful consideration that has been given to the exhibition space, which provides a stark contrast between the painted images and the cityscape visible from the gallery windows. This deliberate juxtaposition creates a unique and special connection between the paintings and the outside world, allowing viewers to experience a more comprehensive narrative that combines both the imaginative world within the paintings and the reality beyond them.
Through this carefully crafted exhibition space, the doors and windows become integral elements of the overarching narrative. The doors within the paintings and the windows within the gallery blend seamlessly into a single narrative, blurring the line between the physical space and the imaginary world depicted within the paintings. This interplay between the exhibition space and the artworks creates a dynamic viewing experience that engages the viewer on multiple levels. As a result, “DURYS” is not merely an exhibition of paintings but an immersive journey into a world of imagination and wonder.
One of the most striking aspects of Padimanskaitė’s “DURYS” exhibition is her interest in painting scales that are aligned with the human body. The sizes of the paintings are reminiscent of doors, spaces where the human body could fit and transport itself to a different dimension. This suggests that for Padimanskaitė, the area of paint is defined by what can be reached by the hand as the artist stands and moves around. The paint is applied in a choreographed manner that seems convenient for the artist, as she does not need to reach higher than her body allows or focus on any one particular detail.
This threshold between the real and the imagined seems to be bound to the body of the artist, as the images she creates do not exceed the natural movements of the artist. Rather, the paintings seem to be an extension of her physical being, a manifestation of the artist’s intuitive and instinctive movements. This creates a sense of intimacy between the artist and her work, as the viewer is transported into the artist’s world and experiences the paintings through the lens of the artist’s body.
Furthermore, the scale of the paintings allows the viewer to engage with them on a more personal and immersive level. By aligning the size of the paintings with the human body, Padimanskaitė creates a sense of familiarity that draws the viewer into the paintings, enabling them to experience the multilayered landscapes and creatures in a more visceral way. This approach to scale and painting also highlights the artist’s technical mastery, as she is able to convey a complex narrative and emotive impact within the confines of her body’s natural movements.
In “DURYS,” Padimanskaitė’s choice of colors evokes the Nordic landscape of wintertime. Interestingly, the outdoor landscape appears to intentionally or unintentionally enter the artist’s images. Despite this, the paintings are far from what we would recognize as traditional landscape paintings. Instead, they outline a fantastic combination of fragments of objects, sites, and creatures that invite the viewer to embark on a journey of discovery and contemplation, searching for the meeting point between their own imagination and that of the artist.
The colors in Padimanskaitė’s paintings play a significant role in this journey. Their calming harmony creates a sense of balance and encourages dialogue between the viewer and the paintings. The colors are carefully selected to convey a range of emotions and sensations, from the gentle blues and greys of winter to the warm yellows and oranges of flickering flames. These subtle shifts in color suggest that the paintings are not just static images but living and breathing entities, capable of conveying a sense of motion and change.
Moreover, the artist’s use of color emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, blurring the lines between object and landscape, creature and environment. This creates a sense of unity and coherence that ties the paintings together into a single narrative. Through the use of color, Padimanskaitė transports the viewer into a world of wonder and invites them to explore the infinite possibilities of imagination. By combining color, form, and scale in such a masterful way, the artist has created a collection of paintings that captivates the senses and inspires the mind.
Vanda Padimanskaitė is a Lithuanian artist who holds an MA degree from Vilnius Academy of Arts. She has spent decades working at the intersection of visual arts and literature illustration. Through her work, Padimanskaitė explores the universal themes of identity, memory, and the relationship between the natural and the supernatural.
– Marija Griniuk
Photography: Vidmantas Ilčiukas