Jonas Gasiūnas

Lithuania

Winner of the Swedbank Art Award 2009

Jonas Gasiūnas has been selected for his innovative vision of contemporary painting, outstanding in Lithuania and among the pioneering ones in the Baltic States, in addition to his idiosyncratic contribution to the international discourse in the expanded field of painting.

In his work, Jonas Gasiūnas explores the themes of changing personal and historical time, as well as the processes of obliteration and reclaiming of memory. The artist paints using the flame and smoke of a burning candle, composing his images in a cinematographic manner. In these paintings, reality – that which is painted – enters a paradoxical relationship with fiction, represented by the smoke traces.

JONAS GASIŪNAS

Born in 1954 in Altaj region, Russia.
Lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania
Since 1990 member of the artists‘ group Angis
Since 1991 teaches at Vilnius Academy of Art, Painting department

Education

1972-73 Pedagogical Institute of Šiauliai, Lithuania
1975-78 Kaunas Applied Art College, Lithuania
1978-84 State Art Institute, Vilnius

Selected solo exhibitions

2007
Edward‘s trajectory, Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum, Vilnius

2005
Painting of Jonas Gasiūnas, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius

2004
Drawing with Smoke, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius

2000
Pipe, CAC, Vilnius
Status Quo, Frederiksbastion, Copenhagen

1995
Arbeit Macht Frei, Kaunas Picture Gallery, Lithuania

1993
Garden of Ashes, CAC, Vilnius

Selected group exhibitions

2009
Brigada Kormoran, Vilnius Train Station
Radar, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, Warsaw

2008
Contemporary Lithuanian Art ANEW, Municipal Gallery BWA Bydgoszcz;
Szyb Wilson Gallery, Katowice; Galeria sztuki, Olsztyn, Poland
Urgentum praecifitatum sulfur, an exhibition of the group Angis, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius
Elephant Bullet, KUMU, Tallinn

2007
Dialogues, 12th Vilnius Painting Triennial, CAC, Vilnius
Jonas Kaido, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius
KoVi KaVi postblablu, Kaunas Picture Gallery, Gallery Meno parkas, Kaunas, Lithuania

2006
KoViKaVi Conference, Kunsthalle in Viborg, Denmark
Double Game, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius
An Exhibition of One Picture, Gallery Vartai, Vilnius

2005
Two Altars, Gallery Vaal, Tallinn
2 Berliner Kunstsalon

2004
Here, But Not Now, Lithuanian and Estonian painting exhibition, Kaunas Picture Gallery, Lithuania
In My Own Juice, Contemporary Lithuanian Art, Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn
Platform: Ground Zero, Vilnius Municipality

2003
Contemporary Art from Lithuania, Technopolis, Athens
Incest, Exhibition/action, Kaunas, Lithuania

2002
Rub Down the Marked Place, a project of the group Angis, Kaunas Picture Gallery, Lithuania
Tracing, painting and photography exhibition, Arts Printing House,Vilnius

2001
Walls for NATO, CAC, Vilnius
Painting Biennial of the Nordic Countries, Väsby Konsthall, Sweden

2000
Rhesus +/- 2, Kaunas Picture Gallery, Lithuania
Painterly, 11th Vilnius Painting Triennial, CAC, Vilnius
You Could Come Later, Gallery of Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart, Germany

Grants and awards

2006-2007 1st level state grant
2001-2002 1st level state grant
1997 First Prize of Vilnius Painting Triennial
1999-2000 1st level state grant
1993 First Prize of Vilnius Painting Triennial

Collections

Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius
M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas, Lithuania
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Stadtmuseum Nordico, Linz, Austria
Private collections