Exhibitions archive

“Composition”: An Exhibition of Drawings and Photographs by Mindaugas Lukošaitis

3 May – 25 June 2023

The composition, as the structure of a work of art, is one of the main tools for developing creative expression. In order to create a coherent artistic image, compositional elements are placed on a plane and/or in space, and the relationships between the elements are coordinated between the individual parts and/or the whole. The importance of composition in Lukošaitis’ exhibition is evident in both the artist’s usual drawings and the new photographic expression. Although different media encode different movements, they are equally important in the exhibition. In other words, photography does not become a secondary means to a good drawing, and the incompleteness of drawing does not compete with the detail of photography. The focus is directed towards the individual’s search for what constitutes and consists of a good composition, what its relationship is to drawing or photography.

The sketchy, expressive, large-format drawings and photographic images of the sky, which cover the field of compositions without people, become signs of observing and monitoring the world. Both drawings and photographs contain elements of composition that are in harmony with each other: luminosity, the poetics and statics of the image, line, sound, and the dynamics of layers. The compositions of the sky captured in photography, placed in a sequence of frames, often become the inspiration for a drawing, in which compositional elements are composed in an expressive manner, with different techniques and methodologies. Another part of the works presented in the exhibition deals with volume, form, materiality, contrast, and entropy. The latter has not only a visual, but also an aural and acoustic resonance in the artist’s worldview, coming from personal memories. According to Lukošaitis, “in my youth, I liked to wander around ruins and construction sites. In order to paint the ruins and have a ‘complete picture’, it is necessary to remember the sounds that can be heard when one takes a step. Ruins are the sounds of footsteps.” Thus, drawings that capture entropy acquire a sonic background and a wide range of frequencies. The artist states that in the process of drawing, crosshatching is not just a matter of tonality, but of creating structure, relationships, tensions, and harmonies that can be heard with the fingers and the ears.

The exhibition “Composition”, which presents a collaboration of different media, raises a discussion question that the artist himself has also asked: “What does drawing do that photography does not?” Lukošaitis believes that “between photography and drawing, or both, there is a subtle expectation and manipulation of the imagination”, where drawing becomes more real than photography, while the latter misleads the viewer with superfluous (aesthetic) effects.

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Mindaugas Lukošaitis (b. 1980) graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts (sculpture) in 2003. Since 1997, he has been participating in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad: in 2004, he participated in the São Paulo Biennial with his brother Gintautas Lukošaitis; he has held solo exhibitions in Vilnius (2005, 2012-2013, 2017, 2022), New York (2012), Šiauliai (2015). Lukošaitis is currently studying for a PhD in Art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

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Exhibition organiser: National Library of Lithuania

Exhibition curator: Aušra Trakšelytė

Exhibition coordinator Elita Užuotaitė

Exhibition architect Gediminas G. Akstinas

Exhibition designer Emilija Dobrovolskienė